Support for a Fragrant Gardening forum?

Pretty please! I know there are forums for plants that happen to be fragrant like the Brugs, Roses, Hummer & Butterfly, etc... but, I think a more general Fragrant Gardening forum would make people feel more comfortable asking and commenting about fragrant plant varitys not covered in the specific plant forums already listed.
Thanks!
Caren

YES,YES,YES!

Nice to meet you Caren :) I can't believe I never asked, lol!
Vi

would this forum include every plant with fragrance? including roses?

Sounds great !

i was thinking that this kind of forum would encompass way too many plants. how could you possibly include everything with a good scent and not take away from the other forums? ie: roses, tropicals, even trees. i think it would be way too confusing. just my opinion and certainly no reflection on you heavinscent.

Oh I just love this. Count me in, please! I think it would be a wonderful place to stop by to share info with each other on plants with fragrance. I know that's one of the things I especially look for in a plant or flower. It doesn't have to take the place of any forum ... just an addition to. LOL
Hugs&blessings ... Elaine

Ironic timing as I just spent ten minutes hunting the site for just such a forum, which apparently does not exist. I am designing my garden to include seasonally spaced waftingly fragrant plants that are not the kind that you have to squat down and sniff. I want the fragrance like osmanthus fragrans, sarcococca, gardenia, and hyacinths that turns the heads of visitors as they murmur, "Where is that wonderful scent coming from?" Then you make them try to sniff out the plant. Great fun to watch, even more fun to plan.

hnc, That is just what Im talking about! To find plants for such a garden you have to go to several forums and then not even find Nicotinia fragrant cloud, Brunfelsia, Chimonanthus praecox, Gas plant or any one of a zillion choices that is not covered in roses, brugs, or tropicals. No offence taken or ment trackinsand but, there are so many other fragrant plants out there besides the forums listed. I really dont think it would take away from the other forums it would most likely keep the other forums more on topic. Where would you go to find info on a year around fragrant garden or a fragrant moon garden?
Pretty please again!!
Caren

I'm adding a pretty please, also. :)
... elaine

I love the idea! We could even have day and night frangrant flowers. Plus, advice on what scents "clash" with others.

Good point pins!

Actually, pins, you make an excellent point. I emailed to all my local gardening friends to come over when my osmanthus was frangransing, and sure enough, when they came by, it was the wrong time of day. Drats. These things are not only seasonal, but also waft at different times of day, and I suspect during different weather patterns. (Consequently, the least of my problems are "clashing" issues. I wish!) I also found some flowers don't waft well in the garden, but waft wonderfully as cut flowers inside (e.g. Sharifa Asma David Austin Rose).

Some day when I get some free time (which doesn't happen here in southeastern year round gardening) I want to get all this researched. However, I'd love if anyone knows of an extensive, consolidated source of fragrant information. I'm picking up bits and pieces in lots of places, but many plants which are called "fragrant" actually require significant nose to petal smushing to get the aroma.

Hey, how come only the SE have come into this conversation? I bet y'all in other regions like wafting gardens too!
Refreshingly aromatic, Heidi

Im hopeing its a time zone thing! I know there has to be more people that grow for fragrance!

Hey .. count me in, for sure!! It'd be an IDEAL forum!

I'd LUV the 'sharing' & 'learning' of such wisdom that is already shared .. just, right here!!

- Magpye

This message was edited Dec 28, 2005 8:28 PM

I'm real new at gardening, so would really like any info y'all have. I started last year by planting a Tea Olive and 2 Gardenia. Also have a Star Jasmine, and plant herbs along with mints.

Thats great Io1, have you tried and annuals or prennials with fragrance or just the shrubs and vine?

I have Tea olives, Murraya (Orange jasmine), Citrus, Michelia figo, Wintersweet, Sweet shade, Acacia floribunda, 4 O'colcks, Summer sweet, Pandora Vine, a few gingers and some others I will rember later. This year I will be adding a whole mess of Sweet peas, Stock, some Daturas, Nicotinia 3 fragrant varitys, Dictamnus albus (Gas Plant) and what ever else I can get my hands on between now and planting time! I can't wait to smell them!

heavinscent, while i might not have agreed for the need for this forum, i am having a good time reading it and i have to admit (smelling it)! you mentioned two of my all time favorites for smell, murraya paniculata and 4 o' clocks. have you ever smelled a cornplant (the tropical not the vegi) or the lowly mother-in-laws tongue in bloom? it's heaven.

I have had mother-in-laws tongue as a gift once but I did not know they had flowers. I really didnt know what to do with it as I was new to gardening at the time. It didnt fit in with my garden so I gave it away. I guess you learn something new every day! As for oclocks and Murraya I have them planted next each other on a tip last year from a friend in CA. My murraya has not yet bloomed for me but I just got it this past summer. It was one of my Rita surviors, still a bit beaten up.
Do you prune yours? I read somewhere to trim the twigs with seven back to four have you ever heard this? For what reason would that be?

I ment to ask about the cornplant I have never heard of this what does it smell like?

This message was edited Dec 28, 2005 10:42 PM

Oh my goodness ... y'all are making my nose twitch! LOL As I said ... I am *very* new at this. Some of these I have never heard of, but will be doing my homework now. I mostly do container gardening. Do those do okay in containers or are they big plants? Ooooh, you've gotten me ready to dig! ;)

If you have the space and enough money you can grow almost anything in a container. Ive seen some crazy stuff down here!LOL

Ok trackn, I know what you are talking about now just had to see the picture. Yet another plant that I didnt know flowered. My mom has these all over her house in CA. Do they just not flower often?

Last year I got a winter honeysuckle at a GARU. I'm hoping that it will have flowers this winter. I love the way it smells! I also have a viburnum with beautiful pink flowers that just smell divine. Last summer the leaves all turned brown and dried up, but there was green underneath the bark, so I hope that it will come back.

I am glad somebody spoke up about this!..I have so many kinds here..will be posting pics....sometimes I get a headache going from forums to forums looking for anything about fragrant plants...

I would love to see your pics Moodene! What do you find to be most fragrant in your garden?
Caren

Love it!
I believe this is how Michigan got their forum lol, they started it right here ;>}

My favorites are the Banana Shrub, tea olive, brugs and Gingers for sure.
My Daphne is forrming buds and I'm hoping for winterhoneysuckle as well!

It would also be great to share bookmarked pages of catalogs and scent sites. I'm at the point that I hardly buy anything if it's not scented--such a snob!

Besides, when you get on a forum and the person posting can't smell or doens't care about scent, you don't even get an answer!!

Can't wait!

Vi, I forgot about my daphnes! They sure do smell good.

A couple of months ago I started a fragrant garden. I am using a garden plan for zone 9 (hard to find) and working from a plant list. It's very helpful because I am also a new and inexperienced gardener.

I would like to see the experienced gardeners' plans. I find it helpful when gardeners mention that they group this plant with that and that and also explain how they group the plants, not just a plant list for cottage garden, fragrant garden, or butterfly garden, for instance, but a design.

One of the best I've seen is bwilliams's tropical garden. He provides step by step instructions and guides for placing the plants. There are probably others, but finding them is time-consuming.

Edited to abbreviate. Sorry, I am a composition teacher, and one category in which students lose points on state assessment is "support," so I teach them to be detailed, provide anecdotes, facts, etc, especially in persuasion. At least I tried to abbreviate.





This message was edited Dec 29, 2005 11:16 PM

heavinscent, i never pruned my murraya so to speak. i just had to keep whacking it to keep it under control. i trained mine into a standard and once the trunk got big enough it quit sending out babies all around the bottom. here is a picture. as far as the mother-in-law plant goes, i had a small one on a northwest bathroom windowsill years ago in st.louis, not the ideal place for any plant! i kept smelling something really good in there and couldn't figure out what it was, i thought somebody spilled perfume or lotion. finally one day i saw this bloom! years later when i moved to the keys, they grew wild all over the place and bloomed faithfully every year. walking down the drive to get the mail was pure wonder! ps. the picture i'm posting was taken from the second story of our house in the keys.

Howdy Folks...
Concerning murraya...is it a fast grower? I was wondering how long until it begins to bloom. (Looks like something I'd like to have!)

The only other fragrant plants I have are gardenias (my favorite!), a couple brugs, and, of course, mirabilis! Reckon I better get some more fragrant plants going, eh?

Shoe.

I'm all for the "fragrant garden" forum! When we lived in an apartment complex in Valdosta, GA, there was a bush that had what seemed me to be a soft soapy fragrance. We smelled it way up on our second story balcony in the evenings and sometimes the mornings. I found out they were the Tea Olive bushes. When we moved to Athens, GA and bought our house the first shrubs we purchased were the Tea Olives and we planted one on each side of the steps to our front porch! Mmmmm...I absolutely love the scent! It's so fresh!

We have 2.6 acre partially wooded lot with lots of room for plants, shrubs and more trees. I'd definitely love to plant some more fragrant ones, but being the inexperienced gardener that I am would also like to learn more about which ones to plant with what, and to see some gardening plans.

Frausnow

Geez Trackin how tall is that Murraya? I can just imagine sitting out on the deck and just breathing in the sweetness! Im jealous I just have a 1 gal pot
Shoe, Mine has been sending out new leaves since october. It has slowed down a little when I brought it in for some weather in the 30's, But its back outside now. Im not sure how hardy it is so I didnt want to take any chances.
I ordered some seeds the other day for Murraea exotica also orange jasmine, Im not really sure if this is the same plant diffrent name or what but the photo lookes simlar. It was only a cupple bucks so I said what the heck.

Keep ya'all fingers crossed! This forum would be great fun!!
Caren

shoe, they are pretty fast growers, but i only know from experience in the keys where the growing season was 11 mos. long. edited to answer your question shoe. they bloom when very young. they want to bloom and bloom in flushes all year long (once every month) as long as it's warm out. they smell like orange blossoms.

heavin, that one in the picture was about 5 yrs. old. i bought it as a foot tall bush and just kept the central trunk growing. it was in a 30 plastic pot with the bottom cut out and nestled into the coral rock. that's "key's plantin"! after awhile the roots rooted well into the "rock" and when that happens you don't have to water much afterward. when i left (it was really hard to leave that one) it was about 15' tall. i have some other pictures packed away. after we move (tomorrow) yeah! i will unpack and post them here. we moved from the keys alittle over a year ago and now are moving again. hopefully for the last time in a long, long, long while. edited to add that the cornplant is probably the strongest smell of all (except for night blooming jasmine) and they open at night. the night blooming jasmine is so strong that gives some people headaches. in the keys people would plant it not to near a neighbor because of that. debi

This message was edited Dec 29, 2005 9:19 PM

I agree! Fragrant Garden sounds great!

Well, to keep up the interest, here's my favorite place and fella. Glen is in Ohio but does have seeds now. http://www.flowerscentgardens.com/home.htm His catalog is usually worth it, tho I heard he'll be cutting down on his plants this year :(

Carmen, do you have the 'Little Gem' Magnolia? It's another must, blooms at only 2 yrs and it throws big white blooms that are lemony scented. Mine was only about 4' but it gave me a bloom a week even with alot of neglect!

This message was edited Dec 30, 2005 1:03 AM

That is a wonderful website. It has seeds for plants listed in the plan I am using. I appreciate the detailed descriptions Glenn gives the plants.

Glen is wonderful to order from I have ordered plants from him in the past but this year I ordered several varitys of seed. I cant wail till spring to plant them out!
Caren

Violabird, where did you get your daphne? I have been looking all over and just cant seem to find one.

Vi, I forgot all about my Little Gem, too! You're right - it does have a wonderful lemon scent. I'm surprised mine is still alive. The top half was broken off in last years ice storm, but it did real well last year.

And, speaking of fragrant plants, lets don't forget the wonderful irises! I just love to smell them, as they have such different fragrances, and they are all lovely.

Caren, believe it or not it was either HD or Lowes! I got white and pink, both were a pretty good deal, $7 if I remember. Here's a pic when I first got it. Edited to add that since I have the date on the pic, that's when it should be out, lol!

Gee, forgot the Peanut Butter Shrub and Pittosporum too! We have so much to talk about, don't we?


This message was edited Dec 30, 2005 5:59 PM

Wow! $7?!? I got mine at Pikes for $10 each. I bought 12. 6 are still living. I'm afraid to touch mine as far as propagating. Has anyone here propagated Daphnes?

I think we could use a separate forum. It does seem like we have a lot to talk about. (Hint, hint, hint, Dave)

Vi, Is the Daphne in the photo varigated or is my color just bad? How lucky are you not only to find one but to find it in bloom. I can only dream. Also about the Peanut Butter Shrub is that also Glory blower? Its on my wish list as well.

Pins, I Dmailed another Dg'er about getting a cutting from her and she said she has had no luck with propagating it. But I would to hear from someone who has!

What do ya think Dave, can we make this happen? ;-)
Pretty please with sugar on top!