Are there any plants that you have grown that were reputed to be highly fragrant that you just could not smell?
My first is lobularia maritima, commonly called sweet alyssum, not to be confused with alyssum montana. I grew this for about 2 years b/c it re-seeded and came back. Grew both the purple and the white but the next year the white only came up. I had always heard raves about it's strong wafting scent but I just didn't think it was all that. It is a low-grower I know, but I would have to get on my knees and literally stick my nose in the flower to smell anything. Even then it was only very faint. This past year when I saw it coming back- it got yanked!
Secondly it's nasturtiums- both trailing and mounding. Grew them twice and never smelled anything! The leaves are nice and pungent and are good on a salad, but for flowers I want my nose to be tickled- not my tongue!
Now I am one of those people who can smell flea flatulence from 2 miles away so I know it's not my nose- or is it?
This message was edited Jan 7, 2006 10:09 PM
Fragrant disappointments?
Me too Bg, after my first baby I devoloped a super human since of smell or super sniffer, as DH calls it.
So far the only plant I have been disapointed it was Michelia Figo. While yes it smells but, to me not good! To me it smells of rotting Bananas. It finally died after a battle with Rita damage and good riddens! I would like to try M. Champaca I just hope it doesnt smell the same.
I forgot about the Daylilly Prairie eyes, blue was not in the name and they dont look anything like Prairie blue eyes. They were from lowes so who know what the really are. They are the palest lavander that goes to pale pink then to pale yellow down the throat. They do have some scent but ya have to get your nose down in it. Even though they have almost no scent they are too pretty to take out. If it says highly fragrant it better waft!!
Sweet autumn clematis, I think it stinks. Chocolate cosmos, the fragrance was faint and I could only smell it if I stuck my nose against the flower.
Heavinscent, your experience reminds me of nemesia. We got some mixed baskets in at the greenhouse with nemesia in it and it smelled so good. The next year we ordered a bunch. By the time that years selling season was over, I was so glad to see those plants gone! I have not bought nemesia again, and just thinking of the scent makes me nauseous.
For me, it was Sweetpeas. Even though the tag said 'odorata' there was no scent at all.
I love my Sweet Autumn Clematis ~ it's a soft honey scent. And Freesias, but everyone that I ask to smell them say they smell awful!
Now Moby, I love the smell of Freesias! My mom has them all over her yard. I need to get some. Hmm Ill add it to the list.
Moby,
Most of the modern sweet peas have no fragrance like a lot of roses do. You have to get an old-timey strain to get any fragrance, IMO. SSE has a good selection of fragrant ones. The Old Spice strain which I am getting is reported to be highly fragrant. They are avail a lot of places.
Never tried freesias so that's another on my list!
Cala,
Can't believe I forgot to mention clematis in my OP. I don't think my clematis smelled 'all that' either. I am wondering if it is because its still a young plant and maybe needs to mature. It's not that I didn't like the fragrance, I just could not smell it at all. Most of it was growing above my head, so I had to pull it down to my nose to smell it- LOL! I am glad you mentioned cosmos. I had been wanting to try it for several years but never could find any. Now I don't feel so bad that I haven't!
Hi all,
I grow Michelia champaca and Michelia alba. Both are very unlike the scent of M figo and also very unlike each other.
M champaca is very powerful and musky while M alba is powerful but much much more 'fruity' in scent to me a bit like a tropical fruit salad with a lot of watermelon!! Just one flower of each can fill a room with scent, so beware!! Apparently they are used in the manufacture of 'Joy' perfume.
Regarding sweet peas try the variety called 'Matucana' this is sold by Thompson and Morgan and has to me, the strongest scent of all the sweet peas. The blooms are deep red and mauve. Another really good one is an old Victorian variety called 'Painted Lady' The blooms are pink and white. If you save seed from these 2 assuming they have not been grown closely together, they should come true to variety when sown. The blooms on both of these varieties are slightly smaller than some of the modern varieties which have generally been bred for size and colour at the expense of perfume.
Clematis montana 'Elizabeth' and Clematis montana rubens are both highly scented smelling of chocolate/vanilla
There is also a non-climbing herbaceous clematis called C. heracleifolia 'Wyvale'. This has true blue hyacinth shaped flowers which smell of white Easter Lilies.
below are some links to photos of the flowers:
www.mytho-fleurs.com/images/Fleurs_du_Vietnam/Michelia_alba.jpg
www.shop.sunshine-seeds.de/images/big/Michealia_champaka.jpg
www.lathyrus.com/antique/matu.htm
www.lathyrus.com/antique/paint.htm
www.duchyofcornwallnursery.co.uk/plantshop_ext.asp?plid=3517&ptid=2&_page=8&sL=
www.pennells.co.uk/Montana%20Rubens.htm
www.esveld.nl/htmldia/c/clhwye.htm
Hope this helps.
Matt
WOW!! Thanks Matt for the scoop on sweet peas! I am writing these down as we speak.
BTW, on a side note come over to the Welcome forum and say Hi to one of your countrywomen who has recently relocated to the Atlanta Ga area.
Matt, I underlined and starred Clematis montana 'Elizabeth" in the Select Seeds catalog and your input gives me an excuse to order.
Vanilla is it? Yum.
Your 'Matucana' looks like a bit like the one I like but larger and showier.
Looking forward to trying it.
Thanks for your post.
P.S My middle child is off to try her fortunes in London this Saturday. Fingers crossed.
berrygirl,
Nasturtiums do smell...lousy!! I originally grew 'Indian Cress' because it's supposed to be "fragant" But I love it cascading over our stone wall and plant it every year.
I wonder if these disparities in perception have something to do with soil conditions or time of day? I love the scent of the old fashioned tobacco plant but can
only smell it in the evening.
LOL Elaine, you got that right. NP is anxious to get the vanilla scented clematis, and on the other hand, I can't stand that smell.
NP, I heard somewhere that the old fashioned nicotiana only smells in the evenings, but have no idea why.
Sharon
Hi, stownes. Nicotiana has long tubular flowers and the nectar can only be reached by moths with a long enough proboscis or feeding tube. In the moths' attempts to gather nectar, pollination of the flower is achieved. The plant has evolved to be scented in the evening to attract these night flying insects and therefore to secure its own survival.
np, I hope your daughter enjoys her time over here. London is a very big and diverse city with tons of things to see and do and has something for every interest. Is she planning to work or study?
Matt
I have Elizabeth, got it by mistake when I ordered Montana Rubens. It smelled when I stuck my nose in it, hoping for a better result this year. I have it planted with Sweet Autumn for a double show,I too, like it. (Moby, our noses must percieve alike, lol!)
As for the Michelias I'd die to have every one of them. I love my Skinneria, it smells like bananas & rum! Talk about a powerful scent, I adore it!
Matt, I heard that even the dried flowers of one of those Michelias last for a long time, is that true?
np and Sharon,
I grow 'Fragrant Cloud,' a white nicotiana. While it is heavenly at night I can say that it smelled very nice during the day as well. It does its name justly. It seeded like crazy and I scattered them in the bed it was in so I'm praying I get more plants this year. I could kick myseld for not saving some just in case.
np,
glad I'm not the only one not impressed with nasturtiums fragrance. They have that pungent odor and taste and are quite good in a salad- so to me they smelled a bit like very weak black pepper!
Hi violabird,
Yes the flowers of M. champaca, the orange flowered one does keep its scent for quite a while after drying. The Hindus use it as a religious offering in their temples because of the intensity of fragrance and lasting power of the blooms. Unfortunately M alba, doesn't keep too well though, and gradually fades as it dries in my experience. The fruity perfume also decays a bit too, so it's not as pleasant as when fresh. I'm still amazed by the power of the fragrance of these blooms when I smell them though. In the Far East, just opened buds around 5 or so are sold in the markets in little pouches made out of banana leaf. These are placed in pockets or bags to be enjoyed throughout the day. They, both M alba and M champaca are made into the most elaborate garlands as well, see link:
www.seasite.niu.edu/Thai/maanii1/lesson15/jampee/jampee.htm
The white things that look like carved ivory are also from a flower. The are the raised centres of the 'White Crown Flower' - Calotropis Gigantea. that are strung together like beads. Fantastic, don't you think!
Link to Calotropis gigantea alba flower
www.botany.utoronto.ca/courses/BOT307/Carr-vascular/images/cal_gig.jpg
Matt
What a gorgeous thing!
Matt,
Thank you. Yes, she loves London and has been back and forth this year. She's looking for experience in film production so it's not easy.
Dame's rocket ,Hesperis,was a dissapointment, I like the blossoms but it was supposed to be a cloud of fragrance, well maybe somewhere but not here
Alyssum reeks. It's supposed to smell like honey, but if any of the honey we gathered from the bees ever smelled like that, it would have been tossed aside.
A better plant for good aroma is Virginia Stock. My apologies for the horrid syntax.
Blue marine Heliotrope. This annual has an aroma of Cherry pie.
Anybody ever had Chameleon plant? It has a very strange smell. Kind of like the papermills down here in the south smell. Which is to say skanky. I've heard they are supposed to smell like citrus, but I sure never got that from it.
My fragrant disappointments are Thalia daffodil (and most of the so-call fragrant narcissus) and my abeliophyllum distichum which I haven't been able to smell much of anything. Love the freesias and the amaryllus belladonnas. Went to a camellia show recently and they have some great smelling fragrant camellias which was an unexpected treat for me.
lol
I didn't read all the way through...flea flatulence just has me laughing! Maybe that's the scent that wafed through the yard today that I couldn't place, since it's warming up and I currently have 9 dogs. LOL
Thanks!
I have a disapointment with one winter honeysuckle,I think there is a wrong place to plant them,because others from the same source,that I rooted ,smell fine,just the one by,or kinda under my weeping chinese cherry.What do you think?
If they were all from the same plant then location should definitly be the factor, they do bloom better in full sun, but if some of the cuttings ere from different plants, it is probably genetic, there is WIDE variation in winter honeysuckles, when i collected mine, i went through 30 or more before i chose it, most had little scent but this one knocked you over.
Chameleon plant is an horticultural variety of Vap Ca or Fish Worth, one culinary herb used by vietnamese people. It really taste like fish with citrusy overtones, you can taste some leaves of yours if you do not spray them with pesticides. I kinda like it but most of the time non-vietnamese people don't.
My deception comes from the moon flower, only got a flower after trying it 2 years in a row, and even if I stuck my nose to it in the evening, I could not perceive any scent, nice looking tropical though.
zarcanat,
Moonflower didnt smell?? I think you are the first person I have ever heard say that. They are renowned for their intoxicating evening fragrance. Maybe the plant was a dud, huh?
Did not know about the chameleon plant- very interesting!
Remember when I said I couldn't smell nasturtiums? Well the other day I read a post- can't remember who- [someone here at DG] said they grew nasts that smelled like ROSES!! Can you believe it- roses. I have GOT to try some of those- LOL!!
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/583478/
Here's rose nasturtiums- the thread was literally under my nose- no pun intended.
This message was edited Mar 23, 2006 10:54 PM
zarcanat, where was the moonflower seed from? Just curious.
They where from MacKenzie seeds in Canada, I could be unlucky enough to have some unscented sports or unadequate weather? Who knows.
Time of day and temperature could also be a factor, on warm evenings when they are opening it is strongest to me but fairly faint by next morning. When it is cold and they start opening at odd times, like at dawn or early morning, they have a lot less scent. It could also be your nose, but less scented sports are also a possibility. I have orderd from Hudson and got lovely ones as well as bought from Walmart with good success, i think walmart uses Burpee
Temperature must be the answer, they were at my summer house which is situated by a huge lake which temperates the climate, there is also a lot of wind. Should have try them in Montreal, big, warm, polluted city ;-))
I don't like Heliotrope (not a vanilla fan) and mignonette didn't smell like anything to me.
However, the worst thing I've ever smelled is lantana. I don't think the flower is fragrant but whenever I touched it the foliage smelled like armpit. So gross! I have had good luck with alyssum in flower pouches by the front door. The honey smell was nice in the warm evenings. I think I had a nice smelling purple petunia once too.
OK y'all........ I unfortunately have another plant to add to the list of fragrant disappointments: peruvian daffodil [hymenocallis/ Isemene] I only bought them b/c I had heard/read that they were all that. The first 3 blooms opened today. I have went to the plant several times checking to see if maybe it was evening/night fragrant. I smell absolutely zilch!!
Oh well, I got them at Wally-World [when will I ever learn?] for real cheap a few months ago, so not a big loss. I will keep them as they are gorgeous.
Beautiful!!! Sad about the scent though. I'll add one as well - my Sarah Bernhardt (sp?) finally blessed me w/an abundance of blooms this past few weeks. IF I bury my nose in one and can faintly detect a scent. After I'll I'd heard...geez, then this? May reconsider keeping her..we'll see.
Chantell,
I feel your pain- lol! Are you talking about the Sarah B peony? Just wondering b/c I think there are several diff plants named for her.
Yea...guess that would've helped eh? LOL Peony she is. There is a scent...but it's faint...and frankly make me feel ill. Don't like it says "Sam I Am" nor green eggs and ham...LOL
I love this thread. LOL. Flea flatulence indeed. :-)
I grew up in the tropics so a lot of fragrant flowers in the temperate climate say nothing to me. To me, Sweel Alyssum smells like cat's urine. Sorry. :-) Stock does not appeal to me at all. Give me Jasmin sambac or honeysuckle anytime. :-D Love Freesia too and Oriental Butterfly Bush and Crinum