BS: Favourite Scented Flowers

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Bee
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 09:14 AM

Lilacs! They are often the last sign of a fallen old house in these parts. Finding a straggling broad clump of twisted thick shaggy trunks, still bravely ignoring lack of pruning and care to send a few flowers into the sun in spite of advancing spruce and fir is the sign that behind it will be a sunken foundation, full of brambles and goldenrod.

There is an ancient pathway in this province called the Acadian Trail. It was once the main road between the scattered Acadian communities, before the Expulsion, and parts of it are still discernible if you know where to look. Thirty years ago, a knowledgeable friend and I hiked into the woods to find a part of that trail, and walked several km. of it. Along the way, we found the barest dimples of old cellars, and in one small clearing, the oldest lilac I have ever seen, mostly dead, but still a few leafy sucker stems announcing that people once lived there.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Thompson
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 04:30 AM

Oh, and lilac in the dooryard blooming.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: open mike
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 02:06 AM

the Daphnia near my house fairly make me swoon when they bloom and their fragrance is at its height.

i do like paper white narcissus and the smell of Bells of Ireland..
it is a peppery spicey smell, not like flowers at all, but one of my favorites.

I have several varieties of Lavendar in my garden..it is lovely!

I also love star jasmine, and gardenia and double delight roses , too!

when i was a student of horticulture we took a field trip to visit a
doctor of botany (or some such) and she explained to us how she had been hired to experiment on how to breed the color and the fragrance OUT of flowers, specifically marigolds. She was developing a white, fragrance-free varitey of marigold. One of the characteristics of marigolds is that they will discourage nematodes from your garden by their smell. But it does seem that modern varieties are often devoid of fragrance, especially roses...(a rose by any other name would SMELL
the same....they are presumed to be fragrant)

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Janie
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 12:32 AM

Oops. Wrong thread.



Sawwwwreeee.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Janie
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 12:32 AM

Eternity is about 2 minutes long when you are 6 months pregnant, gotta pee, and there is no bathroom or bush in sight.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Janie
Date: 19 Mar 08 - 12:28 AM

Scents, memory, and emotional associations!

When my sister died the end of one cold January, some one sent a lovely, large pot of forced bulbs of hyacinth and narcissus. Their heavy scent permeated the entire house. Since that time, 16 years now, I can not abide the smell of either flower, or those of other fragrant blooms that closely resemble their scents, nor do I like to have any fragrant bloom indoors that is really powerful, even if quite different in aroma.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:24 PM

My favorite scents are sentimental.

The daphne near the front door of my mom's house.

My grandmother's sweet peas.

The narcissus that grew near the stream in the orchard.

The climbing rose on my porch (I wish I new the name of it. I thought it was Peaches and Cream but someone told me it is a climbing Peace Rose.)

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Joybell
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 10:16 PM

Brown Boronia
Native Tree Violet
Chocolate Lily
Vanilla Lily

And foliage rather than flowers
Fairy Waxflower
Native Mint-bush
Eucalyptus

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: GUEST,Cats
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 12:14 PM

If I was on a desert island and could only take one flower it would be sweet peas.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: MMario
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 10:43 AM

oh! and Catalpa!

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: MMario
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 10:42 AM

I tend to like whichever one is blooming. but some particular favorites would be russian olive, azaleas and lilacs

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 10:37 AM

Yes, the Paperwhite Narcissus (Narcissus papyraceus) has a haunting, but slightly sinister, scent. They are from North Africa and their heavy scent brings to mind incense and ancient ruins. On the sinister side I get images of the potions and unguents used to preserve mummies (but, in reality, I have no idea what those smelled like!).

In the autumn I buy a few bulbs of this Narcissus, pot them up and put them on the windowsill. They tend to flower a week or two before Christmas and for a few days I'm transported to an exotic, slightly eldritch land far away and long ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Bee
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 08:06 AM

Some Daffodils, yes, and especially the very sweet scented old fashioned white Narcissus, beautiful flower, heavenly scent. They were in all the oldest farm gardens around the province, but certainly in the eastern half, they died out of a blight and are no longer available - a few weak imitations is all you can buy. I'm sure somewhere there's an old healthy population. In fact, I do know of one place, but it's hard to get to - it's an island and you need a boat.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: GUEST,Scooby Doo
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 07:06 AM

I love to smell Freesia's and i like the look of our native flower Daffodil.


Scooby.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Moses
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 04:35 AM

I like the smell of flowering privet (the green-leaved hedge shrub.
It reminds me of my Dad who would spend hours (it seemed) clipping the hedges on early summer evenings.

Also, iris, roses, mock orange, lilac, chrysanthemum, old fashioned freesias, wallflowers, stocks, alyssum and (my favourite because they look so pretty too), sweet peas.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Thompson
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 03:39 AM

Night-scented stock - if you interplant it with Brompton Stock you get a nice display *and* scent at dusk.

Freesias - though they need a greenhouse in Ireland.

Violets, of course.

Mignonette - never succeeded in growing it, but the scent is gorgeous.

Old roses: Roserie de l'Haye, Hansa, etc. You can even make rose-petal-scented ice cream if you don't spray them with poison.

Sweet rocket, which grows wild all around the west coast of Ireland, having escaped from gardens - with its pale pink and violet and white flowers and exotic scent.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Janie
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 11:19 PM

Beware of aiding and abetting the spread of Japanese honeysuckle. Maybe consider a native?

hesperis (as noted above, hardy and readily self-sows.)
Moon vine
old roses that have a fruity or spicy scent
peonies.
Burford hollies
bee balm
yarrow

Bill - I'm with you on the fresh cut hay!

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: number 6
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 08:45 PM

the scent fresh cut hay on on a hot august late afternoon.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Flowers
From: Les from Hull
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 08:36 PM

My favourite scented flower was the (wild) honeysuckle a neighbour and friend had where I lived about 25 years ago. After the rain you could smell it five houses away - literally!

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Wyrd Sister
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 07:31 PM

Sweet Rocket(hardy)

Pinks

Nicotiana sylvestris (half-hardy)

Sweet peas

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Skivee
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 07:04 PM

Plumaria. When you step off the plane in Honolulu you smell the perfume on the air. It's a bit like gardenia.
I had a somewhat similar experience smelling peat fires while leaving Shannon airport. Few flowers were involved that time.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 06:51 PM

And a nice bouquet of tulips makes me happy too.

Sweet William! I love Sweet William!

Also, I love the smell of alyssum in the early evening.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Bee
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 06:48 PM

Climate is Nova Scotia, think it is zone 6? Freezin' cold and snow on the ground now, last frost likely first week of June, first frost likely October.

I forgot Honeysuckle Vine! I have to get some from my Mom - she has an old fashioned variety that she brought from our first home, original vine was already very old in 1952, covered the whole end of the house and had a main stem like a tree, about five inches thick.

Phlox, I have several and a promise of another this spring. Sweet Williams, of course, and I need to plant a fresh batch of seed - they seem to reseed themselves nicely for about five years and then peter out.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: RangerSteve
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 06:37 PM

Iris is my favorite flower smell. Honeysuckle, although around here it can be over-powering at times, and the same goes for wild roses. Black Locusts have a nice smell, but around here, you need to have a partucularly wet winter for the flowers give off an aroma.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 06:21 PM

Freesias, although neither my late mother nor Geoff can smell them and can't understand why!

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: ClaireBear
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 06:18 PM

Violets, freesia, pink jasmine and Gregg sage (salvia greggii), especially together in the case of the last two. All of these are perennial or at least come back year after year, though of course violet and freesia die back to the ground, and the jasmine and sage are in bloom much of the year.

I can't say if you could grow any or all of them in your backyard without knowing your climate. All of them do fine in the Mediterranean climate of northern California.

Another deliciously scented plant is angel's trumpet (brugmansia), but two caveats accompany that recommendation: it's highly toxic if ingested, so don't plant it where the incautious will happen across it; and although it smells utterly heavenly, it only does so at night. Plant it outside an open bedroom window and you will dream of heaven.

Oh, and Double Delight roses.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 06:06 PM

Freesias
Honeysuckle
Jasmine

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 06:05 PM

Hyacinths are heavenly and the stores are fully of them right now. I also love Lilacs but unfortunately they make me sneeze. :-(

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 05:58 PM

Hyacinths, lilacs, roses, and purple petunias.

Phlox.

Lilies of the valley.

To name but a few!

Snow again here today.

Sigh.

Subject: BS: Favourite Scented Flowers
From: Bee
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 05:38 PM

I bought a grocery store Easter Lily last week, and today the first flower has opened. It is very beautiful, but to my intense disappointment, it has no scent! One of my favourite Easter things has been the scent of lilies: pout!

It started me thinking about flowers I love primarily because they smell wonderful. Mayflowers, Purple Common Lilac, Mock Orange, Old Fashioned Freesia, Gardenia, Jacob's Ladder...

What are your favourite scented blooms? (And which might I be able to grow in my backyard).