I moved many of my potted plants out yesterday and found an amazing amount of them in bloom. This petunia apparently reseeded from last summer and has one open bloom.
When I caught a whiff of it, it stunned me at how strong and wonderful it smelled. Made me want to pull up a chair and breath deeply. Just one bloom on it. Daddy Blue ~ can you smell it from here????
Please share your fragrant blooms as they begin to open. We all need a whiff of them... LOL
Grrrrr--- Zone envy!!!!! I won't be able to take my pots out for another 2 months!! I just planted my petunia seeds today. Lovely petunia in the picture. I didn't realize the daddy pets were fragrant. I'll have to try them next year.
Kristi - now THAT'S just showing off (LOL - hugs, my friend). I love the spicy scent of the petunias!! It's one annual that I'm never w/o....ahhhh can smell it here!! My daffys are blooming as well as the Hyacinths...always pleasant scents to enjoy!!! No pics - at work now.
pod I don't have pics but I have a garden bed very close to the street planted w/ roses, TX Mtn Laurel, freesia. They are doing their fragrance thing right now and I can tell by the walkers--you can see their noses sort of pointing and trying to figure out where the fragrances are coming from (or maybe wondering what is that dang plant that's making their allergies go berserk, lol)
Doesn't that make you proud when folks walk past your yard and you KNOW they're-a-sniffin'? I've had a few (esp. summer nights) ask me...what is that scent?!? Gotta love Nicotiana's Fragrant Cloud - stuff is absolutely amazing...I'm sure I will have babies all over the place with the amount of seed I wasn't able to collect. Yipeee!!
Hey Chantell, LOL ~ this fragrance hit me and I started looking to the trees for the nearest Carolina jessamine.
I am ashamed to admit I do not start petunias from seed. I want to do the "sniff" test. If they don't smell, they don't get adopted. (Preferably purple petunias.) They do seed freely but I've never saved it. This one surprised me. I may have to change my errant ways!
On moving the pots out, I may have jumped the gun. Wednesday nite, I will be scuttling to move them all back to cover. Just once I got started, I couldn't stop... lost my mind.
Vossner ~ I have never whiffed the Tx. mountain laurel but it has rave reviews. So sad the blooms are short lived. The Freesia is wonderful. I've only had forced bulbs at Christmas time and indoors is wonderful! Those with allergies will just have to take another pill... 8 )
Fragrance1st ~ I ALMOST felt guilty about posting this... but obviously not enough... LOL Y'all in the north make us jealous in the sweltering heat of summer when the only fragrant blooms we encounter are the night bloomers. At that time of year, you're talking beloved plants that could not endure our heat and humidity. I will eat my heart out later in summer, I promise... pod
This was found on yesterday too. I moved the Callisia fragrans out to give it a soaking and some sun and found a bloom stem. It will be the second time it has bloomed. Supposed to smell great but I wasn't that impressed the first time. Will try a 2nd time to make sure I didn't like it! Waiting on blooms...
Hey no worries - I've never (on purpose-they've done it on their own when I've left the hanging basket out with the same old dirt in it - ugh!) started the Petunias from seed either...and, I may add, for the same reason...need to pass the scent text. There I am stooped, over probably sounding akin to a bloodhound in pursuit...LOL The baby (DGD - 10 months old) is already mimicking me with the sniffing of plants. DD - just laughs, shakes her head and say "Mom...between the plant sniffing and teaching her dog sound - come on!!"
This message was edited Mar 17, 2008 11:40 AM
I'll keep that in mind during July and August!!! That's when my plants really get going. I don't mean to make you feel guilty, I know I'll start feeling better when my bulbs start blooming. If I look under the snow, I can see them starting to come up. My winter honeysuckle is also starting to show some signs of life and the lilac buds are just starting to swell here, too. In another month I will be very happy.......
Happy is just knowing spring is in the offing!
This scruffy looking shrub is loaded with insignificant blooms that smell good. If you get close and sniff ~ at least I don't have to get down on my hands and knees. LOL
Sweet olive ~ Osmanthus fragrans
Of course this is what it looks like here as of yesterday........ This is the fountian in my pond.
Now THAT is cruel! Brrrr... Do you have a photo of that leftover from last summer to warm us back up? LOL
Sitting here with the windows open. I've already been planting blackberry lilies in ground this am.
These are beginning to open... Cemetery whites ~ Iris
Wups ~ I was shivering so hard I selected the wrong photos. Those were wild violets and I'm not getting down that close to the ground to see if they smell. Chantell, I'll have to borrow your little one. 8 )
This is the photo I meant to happen,
That's better. This is a plain old no ID iris that smells good enough to eat...
Can't find any of the pond in summer, how about this one from July... Unknown butterfly on White Swan Echinacea
This message was edited Mar 17, 2008 12:30 PM
Here's another one. Don't know what kind of caterpillar, but it likes my High-scent sweetpeas. Oh, I like that iris......
This message was edited Mar 17, 2008 12:55 PM
Isn't that pretty. A few of the Echinaceas are fragrant. Is the White Swan? I noticed I had flower buds on the plain old purple Echinacea this morning.
Handsome cat! Your photos have so much clarity.
I would say white swan is mildly fragrant. Slight, warm honey-like fragrance. I have Fragrant Angel as well and it has a much better scent. Both are hard to smell outside with all the other stuff I have. I usually cut them to bring indoors and then really notice the fragrance. I grew White Swan from seed about 3 years ago and now it's all over the place. The butterflies and bees love it and the hummingbirds will visit it as well. My 3 boys like to try and catch the butterflies, so it's worth growing even if it's not super fragrant, just for the entertainment value for the kids. LOL.
Ahhh Kristi - love to share but my little bloom has kinda grown on me!!!
What a charming little green thumb in training! LOL I must say you can't deny her, she has your eyes and smile. Very sweet!
Thank you!! I'm a tad biased but I think she's a sweetie!!!
both ladies are very good-looking!
my TX Mtn Laurel grows much like a shrub, in fact it reminds me of boxwood, but with bigger leaves. Anyway, this year is has gifted me w/ many flowers and that grape koolaid frag. is everywhere.
and right next to it, is this beauty, Belinda's Dream. The blooms on BD are ridiculously huge
You are too sweet and LOOK at those blooms....ahhhhh simply beautiful
I forgot to mention my citrus blossoms are doing their thing. They are so fragrant now that Kozmo had to ck them out.
Gorgeous!!!! I can't wait for spring here!!!
Vossner ~ All your blooms are most lovely. What type of citrus do you grow?
I've been lusting after a kumquat. Mainly for the fruit but I suspect the blooms smell good too.
a navel orange, a rio red grapefruit, var. eureka lemon, a satsuma Kimbrough.
My rio red grapefruit is in a huge pot, yet I've been warned by many that eventually it will either die or outgrow/break my precious large pot. I am dreading taking it out and putting the satsuma it its place. I probably have another year but I need to get on with it. I was hoping that the pot would contain the grapefruit but I can't find anybody or literature that will support my theory. One of those stupid mistakes I made.
I planted two grapefruits from seed years ago in my less than intelligent days. I have since found they don't come true and have never bloomed. I had gradually moved them to larger pots and have grown to hate them as they are monsters. I refuse to increase the pot size. Now I remove them and whack away at the root ball with a drywall saw. Add fresh soil, prune the tops back, take a nipper and cut off all the thorns I can see and still don't care for them due to the effort. Oh well, not one to let a plant die here...
Look at you two!!! I'm just excited when seeds actually grow and ya'll are growin' fruit!! We can do that with watermelons out this way....ha!!
No fruit here Chantell ~ just fruity... or is that nuts! 8 )
Lets go with nuttie...I have my "Normal people scare me" tshirt on today...patients love it if they stop by...LOL
pod, I could do like you do, trim the rootball, replace soil, etc. but that is equally laborious. Might as well get it out and replant in ground elsewhere. Of course, then there's the issue of it becoming a monster. Who is ever going to climb up way on high to pick up the fruit? not me!
You've given me some food for thought. Maybe what I'll do is sell the grapefruit on craigslist and stick with dwarf fruit varieties.
BTW, 2-3 yrs ago I replaced all my nandina with sweet olive. wow, what a nice fragrance outside my front door. No "old perfume" smell.
Here is the grapefruit. I told me husband about perhaps selling it and he said we'd find a place for it inground. I adore my huge pots. I underplant w/ annuals and diff. potato vines during warm season and they are so festive.
Aha! Maybe your DH will climb the tree for grapefruit...
I think the reason I have grown to hate the g'fruit trees is they have become labor intensive. But I do hate to euthanize them.
Love your large pots too. With underplanting, they resemble topiaries. Very neat! I planted a tiny succulent around the bases of my g'fruits more as a green mulch.
pod, how big are the pots on your two g/fruits?
I do shape my citruses some for that rounded look. I do it once a year before they start putting out flowers.
Tonight we had dinner outside, chicken cordon bleu from HEB (this cook was off today!). Hubby put some pinion in the fire pit and we ate surrounded by all kinds of fragrances. It was so nice!
How delightful for dinner... a bit airish here for that.
I am not sure what size, I would have to measure in daylight but they are hard for me to manhandle. When it is time to whack them back, I lay them on their side and slide out of the pot. A friend told me I could put them in ground but am not sure I want to nor where to put them, nor do I want to dig large holes.
Here's what fragrant in my garden right now.
Confederate Jasmine
Mexican Flame Vine
