I'm posting photos of leaves and flowers of my Fragrant Brunfelsias as they are sometimes hard to identify.
Brunfelsia Americana Collage. Flowers and leaves.
Brunfelsia Shrubs. Leaf id's
Brunfelsia Australis. Collage of flowers and leaves.
Brunfelsia Gigantica. Collage of flowers and leaves.
Brunfelsia Grandiflora. Collage of flowers and leaves.
Brunfelsia Isola. Flowers and leaf identification.
Brunfelsia Lactea. Flowers and leaves for identification.
Brunfelsia Nitida, flowers and leaves for identification.
I believe this is Brunfelsia Magnifica. I lost the id for this Brunfelsia. The colour is a very deep purple, with an extremely large flower. The stems are extremely long and drooping. one photo has a piece of string at the ends of both stems for id purposes.
Possibly Brunfelsia Magnifica. Many of the Brunfelsias have leaves of different shapes on one shrub. I'll try to get a positive id the for this one.
bedouin - how would you describe their scent?
chrissy100 you have a Dmail.
Chantell, they are quite different in fragrance. All are night fragrants.
I'm afraid I'm not very good at describing these wonderful fragrances, but I'll try.
I went on the web to try to find 'words' to describe fragrances of flowers, but it was no help, so here goes. With almost all of the Brunfelsia fragrances, one can pass close to the bushes and breathe in deeply, enjoying the fragrant night air, wishing one could package their marvelous fragrances! The gentle breeze moves the fragrances a little distance for all to enjoy with great pleasure!
The B. Americana and B. Nitida both have a very clean, clear, wafting fragrance of cloves. Rather 'high notes'
B. Gigantica's fragrance is rather powerful, deeper, gardenia-ish; 'fuller' rather than 'headachy'! A heavenly fragrance - I've air-layered quite a few of these B's to ensure I have duplicates in case the mother dies.
B. Lactea, like Gigantica has a glorious 'flowery' fragrance, lighter than B.Gig, clean, clear and just as memorable.
B. Isola is a hybrid of 2 of the very fragrant Brun's. (I'm waiting for the son of the Hybridizer to return from holiday, so I'll post this info later) B. Lactea +B. ??? B. Isolo's fragrance too is 'flowery' rather than 'fruity'. You can imagine the combination of the best of 2 of the Fragrant B! So it's pretty special. The flower is a combination of the white ??lactea and the blue of ??, therefore easily identifiable.
I've no photos of the Brun. Jamaicensis flower but I'll post the leaves. It too has a glorious 'flowery' not fruity fragrance, full and exquisite.
My B. Australis has no fragrance whatsoever!
My B. Grandiflora has large beautiful pure purple flowers, changing as the other do, to white. I don't particularly like the fragrance. Rather dog-like, but it could be a problem with my nose, or with the soil as I've had it in a pot since I bought it. All of them should be in the ground.
I lost the id of one of my Brun's a long time ago. I think it may be B. Magnifica, but I'll have to check this. Its not flowered for such a long time, I don't recall the fragrance! Pity, probably needs acid soil! I do recall though, that it has amongst the largest of the B. blooms, pure purple, and pretty spectacular. Just wish it would bloom again!
I'm adding some links here as you may have a better idea of the fragrances from the professional nursery people!
http://www.rareflora.com/priceavailibility.htm
Excellent descriptions of Brunfelsias
http://mgonline.com/ladyofthenight.html
http://132.236.163.181/cgi-
This message was edited Aug 29, 2007 5:38 PM
bedouin - very eloquent in your descriptions!! I'm imagining their wonderful scent. I think I have a bad case of zone envy - seems every plant I adore the scent of isn't hardy to my area...so every fall in comes the Plumerias, Jasmines etc. Was thrilled to find some supposed hardy Gardenia...we'll see. Thank goodness the Passi's, Lavender and such do ok being left out...whew!! Have you heard if Brunfelsias are difficult to over winter?
Chantell,
Consider edgeworthia - it isn't very pretty when not in bloom..long empty stems (brown) with this umbrella like cluster of long leaves (medium green) sprouting out of the top. But in Jan and Feb.... white flowers turns to yellow and will perfume the walkways, entrances, etc. especially strong at night. I will try to find a photo of one in bloom.
and another
Also the geraniums do real well here in NC and you have similar weather conditions so you should have no trouble. The geraniums (annuals and cost less than 4 dollars..I think 2.50 each) are huge now. I bought in 4 inch pots and each (no loss) are about 1.5 feet high and about 2 feet across at least. Anyway, when you brush past them or if it rains or during watering (don't need much water) the scent is everywhere. I can't remember all the fragrances, but I have two types of rose, lemon, lime, chocolate, and I forget what else. I didn't expect too much from them so I didn't pay attention. I just wanted something that could live next to boulders that get pretty hot in the sun. And, I didn't want to babysit anything since I was doing a lot of landscaping and I didn't want to invest in anything expensive and risk loss. There was a flower (small and not so important in comparison to the scent of the leaf) The plant looks like a lacy fern. Bright medium green - a very saturated green --like a pine green. The flowers as I recall were very short lived. Anyway, you could look for these next year. I got mine at the farmers market.
What beautiful blooms...going to read up on those now....thank you!!!