Fragrant houseplants???

Hi! My outdoor gardens are designed based on fragrant flowers - but living in New England, the fragrance ends for winter. Are there houseplants that both bloom in winter and have fragrance?

Jasmine Sambac 'Maid of Orleans' is a good choice if you have bright light to offer it. It's an everbloomer. Some orchids will bloom in the winter as well, but don't know which-sorry.

GH

I like the idea of a jasmine. I have large windows in the dining room facing south and west. Would this be sufficient?

Yes! Make sure it's close to the window during the winter months. Your South window in the summer would be too hot, so if you place it there now, make sure you give it some protection(i.e. sheer curtain, e.t.c.) and not as close.

Hoya's! Some are very fragrant. I had my Hoya lacunosa in the Study last winter and Love the fragrance but it got so strong at one point I had to move it to a larger room .... the study is a very small room. A lot of other Hoya's are apparently fragrant also.

Some of the Savseverias have very fragrant blooms. Also, Gardenias, if you can give them the right conditions, are exquisite for the time in which they bloom.

Susan in Minneapolis

I love Gardenia's .... have one bush blooming now! But, they get way too big to keep inside as houseplants for me! My bushes have gotten 6' tall and just about as round! I had no idea that Sans had fragrant blooms. One of mine out on my deck had blooms on it about 3 weeks ago, but I never thought about smelling it. I will have to remember for the next time it blooms .... maybe I will move it indoors for the bloom time!

Freesia also has a exquisite odor and will bloom in winter...

I agree about hoyas. I really recommend h. lacunosa because it blooms like a maniac all year-round for me. some of the others might take a while to mature to the point that they start flowering.

Well, one problem is that Our Old House is pretty cold in the winter. The dininig room is usually the coldest room and can easily dip into the low 50s. It is doubtful the temperature in the room ever exceeds 65 degrees in the winter, and on average, it's only 60 degrees. So, I suspect most tropicals are out of the question. Wouldn't a hoya need a warm room?

well, if you buy one from Lowes, you have one year to kill it!!! just keep the receipt

True enough! Hadn't thought of Lowes lol

Seandor,

I keep my house at 62 degrees F. in winter, and the hoyas are in a south window and do OK. At night, in a sunroom with 7 95-year old windows, I am sure that there are cold drafts and the temperature gets into the fifties. These might not be ideal conditions, but they do bloom. So, you might want to give them a try.

Susan in Minneapolis

Thanks Susan!

i would freeze to death if the heat didn't stay on 73 in the winter...........brrrr brrrr.......
don't forget the paperwhite bulbs............a cinch to grow and so fragrant............you can actually put rocks in a container, add water and let the bulbs sit on the rocks and they are beautiful

gessiegail,
All you need to survive house temps in the 60s is to wear a turtleneck and 2 sweatshirts, and have some nice warm slippers!

Susan

I did live for 11 years in Ruidoso,NM...............I do remember that because the air was dry, I get colder here in the winter than i did there................as you say, we just dressed for a cold climate...........used fireplaces and wood burning stoves to stay warm..........

Now that I have been gone since '89, i don't know if I could do that again at my age now.
Here the humidity is high.........so when it is cold for two months, it penetrates the body (LOL)

When we first moved to Massachusetts, we replaced the ancient boiler for a modern natural gas boiler for our hot water heating system. We went 4 days without any heat - except from the oven. Of course, all this happened during the first serious cold spell in Decemeber!

It got as cold as 32 degrees in the dining room. We had to keep water running through the pipes to ensure the pipes didn't freeze.


We would warm up the kitchen by cooking things in the oven, and stayed snuggled under blankets, watching tv.

We survived no problem. . . . but most people thought we were nuts 'cause we didn't stay in a motel!

I will have to vote that you were 'nuts' to not stay in a motel.........(LOL)

Yes - but what story would there be in staying in a motel lol