Australian and New Zealand Gardening: What's in flower in September, 1 by weed_woman

weed_woman wrote:
Dianne, I love magnolias. I put tow in about 2 years ago, and although they struggled for a bit, they both produced half a dozen flowers each this year! They've gone to leaf now, and I didn't get any pics. Think they were m. soulangiana x.
I was putting yellow flowering Budlejahs on the shelf at Bunnings this week, and although lovely to look at, the fragrance (odour) was a bit reminiscent of cat pee! I had the purple flowering one here a few years ago, but it gave in to the humidity and the saturated soil during the floods.
There are fragrant bromeliads, the most noteable one being Tillandsia cyanea, or Till. lindenii, both very similar in appearance with a smell like cloves. They send up a flower spike in the shape of a paddle (hot pink in high light) and it sends out one blue/purple bloom at a time. The fragrance is strong enough to fill a room.
This is a pic of Tillandsia lindenii last July. I still have flowers going now on my current plants which means it flowers for around 4 months. (May-aug) You can pick these plants up at markets and department stores on occasion.
Sue