Ugly blooms but wonderful fragrance!

Okay Podster I must have missed something...what are you giving out here? Manfreda?

thank you marieortiz. It really is wonderful looking at the trees but they will be losing their leaves soon as they are all deciduous!

I have my own horror story about a cactus. It had these purple fruits on them, I can't think of the name right now.
I was in west Texas when I saw one of these purple fruits and I though 'Oh how pretty... I can take that fruit and grow me a cactus like that' so I pick one and it has all these pricklies (that's what it was Prickly Pear Cactus!) LOL,
anyway my hand was full of tiny little prickles that you can barely see. Of course my reaction was to put the dern thing in my other hand. Then I go to set it down on the ground and hit my head on the cactus. The cactus had bigger prickles and it hurt! So my friend took some tweezers and laughed for the entire two hours it took her to pick them all out of my head!! I think I finally found some tape to pull the tiny ones out of my hands. It's funny now.

Oh my goodness Allwild, you had me laughing out loud at your cactus story; only because I can surely see myself doing the same cotton-pickin' thing...LOL!

I have to ask, what are those flowers with the burgandy stems in your photo? They are quite lovely.

LOL on the cactus ~ can you imagine them being edible? How in the devil does one get near enough to clean them. Sorry to laugh at adversity but I guess it's the same as Chantell spewing soda out the nose. Sick sense of humor we have here. LOL

Hineni ~ Hooray! Fingers crossed for your app. I think you are ready for a change of scenery.

So, Allwild... your "ugliest fragrant flower" Have you IDd it by any chance? Is it a weed?

Have you seen this weed in East? Tis gorgeous and fragrant too. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1045566/

Yes, I have three seed pods on the Manfreda and am watching them like a buzzard hovers over a starving bovine. What ever they deliver, I will share.

That looks like Hibiscus sabdariffa ~ Roselle? Am I warm yet? Or is it Okra... 8 )

Allwild I am glad I am not alone. My brothers were out here visiting and we were in Sedona being tourists and I saw this really neat climbing cactus that had these really cool berries on it. ( I di dnot see they were covered in spines) Well since my brothers were already on my case about picking seeds where ever I went I decided to be sneaky and pull one of the beries off and shove it in my pocket before anyone could see. We ll you guessed it I had the darn spines all over my leg in the pockets of my jeans and in my hand.

Yes marieortiz, it was pretty much like that! hahaha. those pricklies are so small you cannot see them on the pears! i know better now though.

And yes to Podster, that is a hibiscus sabdariffa plant sticking up in my picture. I love this plant it has been a joy to grow this year. I planted a few seeds in June and it has already bloomed. (It said it would take at least six months) The flowers and fruits called calyxes are used to make a juice that tastes like cranberry and it has other edible uses and it's full of nutrients. We like growing stuff we can eat and I really like growing medicinal herbs. It's fun to discover a plant or wildflower growing that has medicinal values. This is my first year growing I have it in a pot not sure how it overwinters here? How long have you had yours Podster? I think there are seeds in the calyx.

I cannot really say that is the same plant on the link you have, Podster. I guess I will have to go over and get an ID for it though.

Please, do ID your fragrant weed. The reason I asked is the one I linked has almost a citruslike fragrance.

My H. sabdariffa is a different one but I am not growing it this year. If you are interested in information on it, I saved a good bit in my journal, including a recipe or two. http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/viewentry/148684/ I sampled it but was unable to harvest seed as something devoured the seed pods before they ripened. Intended to try some in ground but never got one of those "round tuits". I never overwintered mine and just assumed it to be an annual?

There you go, we have covered cacti, weeds and pretty blooms...

Oooh, thank you for the info on the Roselle! It is one of the plants I've wanted to try. Very good health wise I have read. I love it when a health giving plant is also so beautiful. I'll have to research and see if I can grow it in my zone, if I can ever directly discern what zone I will be in!

I've been reading garden mags and imagining my future gardens in my head. I guess I'll need to get out the graph paper soon so I can get a good start on my planning and prep. I so, so hope I will have money left over for a green house! That's been a real desire of mine for about three years now. We were going to build one from scrap, but I think I'll just try to buy one. Then maybe when I get handier I can try to build a second one :)

I'm planning on trying to save seeds so I will let you all know when they are ready!!

I put mine in a pot because I thought I would probably have to bring it in over winter. Next year I think I may trying to put it in the ground and see if it comes back. i can always grow another one if it's an annual anyways *;*
And thank you for the growing info, I will check it out!!

Edited because that post belonged in a total different thread.

This message was edited Oct 18, 2009 4:12 PM

Wow Pods, that is an impressive write up on Roselle in your journal. I think I will have to start it in a greenhouse or inside, but I definitely want to try it to make the tea and jelly; plus that rum spice drink sounds mighty festive too ;)

Alrighty friends - ya'll come on over and help ID this fragrant baby I found while in NC http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1049491/

As for cacti spines...been there done that...NO more...except my one little prickly pear patch for sentimental reasons....

I see it has been a year since anyone was here ........... but I wondered if anyone had any fragrant flower seeds they would like to share. I would like to have some that are fragrant during the day as well, as I don't spend a lot of time outside at night. I do have tuberose and moonflowers that perfume the air at night.

You can answer me here in the thread, or d-mail me.

Thanks ever so much!!!!!

one of my favorites is chocolate mint. not much in the way of flowers but the smell is heavenly when you water it or touch it. be glad to send you cuttings but dont have seeds. my grandkids fight to see who waters the mint when they come over, they like it so much.(i sort of let it run amok on one side of the house)

I would love that sherman, thanks for the offer! ! ! ! ! I had some I transplanted this spring after we moved in December, but I don't think it took. Doesn't look very healthy, hasn't grown. Will dmail you my addy.

I agree with the heavenly scent on the chocolate mint. I've always loved it. My neighbor said she has some orange mint she is going to give me some starts from.

Podster , can you spare me a few seeds? I'll take cood care of them .

will do crit

I tried germinating the seeds with no success. Used them all up myself otherwise I would gladly share. So far, this doesn't appear to be a blooming year. But yes, should I get more seed or find a little plant, it will be yours Digger9083. This plant was actually growing in the wild here so I will keep an eye out...

Thanks much . I'll look for one but if it's native , I wouldn't recognise it if I saw it

Digger ~ it is native even where you are but I hope to be able to find some in the woods here. I thought mine would clump but it hasn't so far.

Here are a couple of links:

http://www.easywildflowers.com/quality/man.virg.htm

http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week311.shtml

If anyone else has any other ideas for fragrant plants, I would be interested to hear. I just dmailed a person that had some cuttings from the Night Blooming Jasmine, I really believe I need to have that. We live in the country and would love to have something that smells that strong, so I could plant it away from the house (so as to not worry about those nasty snakes. I don't *do* snakes!!!) and have the scent waffing through the air.

Thanks for everyone's input!

Podster , looking at the links , I know where some are in Tex . I can collect a coupla them next month . Thanks . Had no idea that's what they were .

Let me know if you don't find one? I will search when 'snake' season is over. LOL

The only snakes I don't want to stay on this side of "the bridge" are the poison ones . The others I'll relocate . Had them for pets in younger days . All they are is lizards without legs . My deal is big , ugly spiders . Shudder .

Spiders I can deal with. Just don't like this time of year when I keep walking into the webs as they are late to take them up in the mornings.

I also don't mind the nonpoisonous snakes and have learned to ID them and relocate with my grabbers. Poisonous snakes are terminal as I have pets in this fenced acre. They usually stay away though as the cat collection tends to hunt the same quarry the snakes will hunt.

My cats are too lazy to scratch their B - - - s. Birds are a different story , Just let me pick up the water hose and they scatter , not to be seen for awhile .

LOL ~ sometimes I wish they weren't so ambitious when I find they have caught a hummer, I may have to find that waterhose myself.

I hang the feeders higher than the cats can jump . I pull a branch down and then hang it .

Same here but I think they snag them when they dip down to the flowers.

Yeah , could be .

Winter Jasmine is blooming for me right now, inside of course since I live in zone 4 Iowa................... but it has a wonderful fragrance and can be smelled for quite a distance.