Thanks for all the info jasminegal! I have grand duke and belle of india in pots, so I guess that is out! haha. Maid of orleans is in the ground and getting more shade this time of year. I actually ripped it out but I must have missed some roots and it came back with a vengeance. Belle of India might be my favorite since it has more flowers but I love the little "rose buds" of grand duke and I love that grand duke's flowers don't fall of the next day. I don't really care for maid of orleans.

Orange zest sounds awesome. I can deal with slow growing, I do grow orchids after all ;) I like musk scents, I even enjoy paperwhites...lots of people don't.

And thank you, I was impressed with the spike too. My Sharry Baby had a lot more flowers on it than the one I saw at Home Depot a month or two ago so I was proud of myself.

I would definitely recommend you try a hoya or two! Lacunosa is an easy one. I like them because they don't need big pots. If you have limited space, most orchids might not be worth your time as they don't bloom too often. One exception is Brassavola nodosa, it blooms frequently and the flowers last a long time. I have B. Little Stars and the scent is delectable, smells like lemongrass and ginger with a dash of some spice like allspice or nutmeg. It's delicious. It's in bloom right now. Has a seedpod too.

And as for nyctanthes, it will probably do well on my back porch. It tends to be much warmer on the porch than the rest of the yard. I have some sensitive plants on the back porch that don't even get leaf burn, so I think nyctanthes will do well. The only problem is it might get too big to stay there for too long, but that is probably a long time from now.

Tom you are really tempting me to get these beautiful plants. Space can be managed now can't it..lol! You should definitely get the french perfume. Accents has it for a good price. Try mysore mulli sambac. Its a wonderful plant. A little rare though. Almost eden carries it. You can find it on ebay in spring as well. It is an ever blooming plant. Nyctanthes will definitely do well in that spot then.

jasminegal.. I love seeing the berries on a Murraya! It's such a giving plant. Soon more Murraya babies. :)

Oh Tom.. I've been wanting Little Stars, but I heard it's not as strongly scented as its parent Brassavola nodosa?

If anyone needs to get a Chinese Perfume plant, I recommend the ebay seller from CA. I ordered their 6" pot for $36 ish (including shipping) twice and planning to get more when the weather warms up. Their plants are much larger than most other places. :)

I just got my first red berry on Murraya Kemistry! And the whole plant is filled with green berries. I think coming spring will have to change the pot. I just picked the red berry and put it in the soil next to the mother plant :) I just might buy one more chinese perfume plant :)

Jasminegal, space can definitely be managed! Good thing is those plants can live in much smaller pots than the jasmines. I say go for it. My space is starting to get limited too. The back porch is starting to look like a nursery. You have made me want the french perfume and mysore mulli jasmine. I did buy jasminum molle from accents the other day along with the chinese perfume plant. I'm hoping the scent knocks my socks off.

Kemistry, I do not have a plain old nodosa, (although I really want one) so I cannot compare. I have B. grandiflora and Little Stars. My Little Stars is much more fragrant than my grandiflora. I think they say it has less scent because some of the hybrids seem to lose the fragrance of the parents, but not all do. I guess it's just luck if you get a very fragrant clone or not. I'd definitely get Little Stars! It's been an effortless plant for me and I like the B. cordata influence on this one.

I am sure you will love j.molle. I have 5-6 yr old plant and when it is loaded with flowers in mid summer it is beautiful. It becomes huge though especially after the second year. I would say molle has a fragrance of both sambac and officianale varieties together without any of the musky scents.

Thanks for the info on j. molle, now Im really glad i decided to get it. The scent sounds perfect. I have read reports that it is musky so it will be interesting to see what my nose picks up. Im always amused by conflicting reports, i guess different noses just smell things differently. Im actually pretty excited to hear it can get huge :)

This is my molle Tom. You will get an idea. It is in a 7 gallon pot and almost 4-5 ft. Many people who cannot officianale's strong scents can tolerate j.molle :) That's why said less musky..let me know what you think after it blooms!

Wow, that is a monster! Looking good. Is the scent as strong and wafting as officinale? What jasmines would you say have the strongest, wafting scents? The more overpowering the scent the better. That's what I'm really after. I will definitely let you know. Thanks for the scent descriptions.

When they bloom enmass it is Tom! For me they start blooming around early august and go on till I get it indoors.I feel all the jasmines in indian summer environment are wafting. In Va when we have 100F all of them waft so much. But if you are looking for strong fragrance all the white vining varieties of jasmine fit the bill.

Good to know! The ones I would like to get next are tortuosum, officinale, and grandiflora. Kartuz says officinale needs 60 degree nights to bloom. Is this true?

The ones which I got from logees 'Jasminum grandiflorum' and 'French perfume jasmine' both have done well for me without the 60 degree nights. I bought them in dec or jan and were on my kitchen windowsill. This year in the basement. Jasmine officianale has so many cultivars that it becomes a little confusing. But if you really are buying go for either one of them. Grandiflorum is single variety and french perfume is double variety and fragrances are the same. The former started blooming for me before. These grow very fast so don't worry about the size. When I got them they were in a 4" pot and now they have outgrown their 2 gallon pot.

Ill probably get them this spring. I went a little crazy and ordered some hoyas from kartuz, including subcalva which ive been dying to get my hands on. As well as the order from accents and one from gardinos :) I did notice the many officinale cultivars..good to know they don't need the cool nights. Thanks for all the expert info, i really appreciate it. Good to hear they grow fast as well, it sounds like you have a few monsters on your hands, haha

I love that people are keeping the blooming threads going! I get so many new ideas from them. :)

Not much blooming for me besides my gigantic Brunfelsia gigantea in the basement, it's too large for me to bring up to enjoy when it's cold outside. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the Nicotiana alata bloom spikes I cut off still produce an exotic fragrance at night in a vase when I'm being lazy on the couch. I read the plants are perennials in warmer zones so I shoved the pot under the benches in the basement after I cut off the blooms to see if I can overwinter them.

-Robert

I definitely have some wonderful monsters Tom...lol!

Hi Robert..how are you? We were missing you here.

Hey Robert. That's pretty cool they are still scented! I just got B. gigantea from Gardino's. It's outside. I wish it would bloom! Those nicotiana flowers look enticing. Do they smell anything like petunias, since they are related? They do look so much alike. Haha. I wish I could smell them.

Hi Tom!

I think you'll love Brunfelsia gigantea's scent. You can even detect scent during the day though much lighter than at night. So far it's my favorite brunfelsia. Smells like perfume with clove undertones. I must admit I'll probably order B. americana come spring since I've never smelled it. ;)

I've often wished we could all visit each other's gardens to smell all the goodies. I was very happy to discover Nicotiana alata still produced fragrance at night after being cut. As for its scent description I suppose I'd say it reminds me of Brassavola nodosa. Sometimes I'm not at all impressed with its fragrance outside and sometimes it does impress me. I love that it's easy to grow from seed so if you don't like the scent you didn't spend much to find out.

Thanks to your post I went out yesterday and bought a Dracaena fragrans 'Massangeana' at Lowe's. Hoping I don't have to wait years for it to bloom. :)

I smelled Dracaena fragrans at my fav coffee shop a few years ago... it was really intense; smells nice from far away but a bit stinky from up-close lol.

Oh Robert, I got a brun americana from Almost Eden and it has 1 bud on it, so maybe I'll be able to sniff it for ya :p

I have the b.americana that i got from accents. It bloomed only twice and had this wonderful clove scent. Slugs loved it too and ate my flowers :(

Robert does b. gigantea prefer full sun or part sun like australis?

Was B. americana purely clove scented or a mixture of perfume with clove? I can't wait to finally sniff one next spring. Thanks for the slugs tip!

I grow Brunfelsia gigantea in the filtered sun under the arbor but it does get direct sun in the morning. It will get huge so prepare to give up a huge chunk of real estate. :) It is currently still blooming down in the basement. Maybe I should cut off a branch with blooms and see if they will also produce scent in a vase at night.

Robert I don't exactly remember but I think it has a mixture of wonderful perfume and cloves. When the flowers start changing the tint to yellow the cloves fragrance starts dominating. I am sure you will love it. It is a moderate growing plant atleast for me. Thanks for the tip abt gigantea. Anything that will give more blooms is my favorite :)

Maid of orleans blooming in the basement brightens up the day.

Was out in the garden a few days ago & caught a whiff of something wonderful. Realized that the winter honeysuckle was blooming already. I was going to take a photo but then this happened:

Guess I shouldn't have flipped off winter earlier:(

Looks like a winterland Maggie..just in time for christmas!

Just lost a sizeable branch on Southern magnolia to the weight of the snow:(. I go out and clear it but last nite was too much. Those big beautiful leaves just hold too much snow

Robert, that's pretty awesome :)) I think yours will bloom sooner if you give it some fertilizer. I only mixed in palm fertilizer when I repotted them. They started blooming last year, so it only took a year. I scorched mine with sun and they took awhile to recover so be careful! Their bloom habit reminds me of orchids. They take a little while to form a stalk, but not too long. In the summer the flowers lasted 3 or 4 nights and the fragrance was intense and beautiful . This fall they lasted probably 10 days and the fragrance was just as intense but not as fresh as the summer but still beautiful. Being a scent hound, I do not think they stink at all. They're definitely worth waiting for and in my opinion fool-proof. I know you'll love yours. Even better, my bigger specimen is pumping out another stalk after the other ones died off so I'm happy about that.

Thanks for the description of B. gigantea, now I'm even more excited for it to bloom. I'll let you know what I think. I'm happy to hear it gets huge. And now I want to start some nicotiana from seed this spring, and some old fashiones petunias :)

And it would be nice to visit each other's gardens, but in the meantime pictures and scent descriptions will have to do. Ok, I think I wrote enough. I can't seem to keep my posts short, haha.

Hong Kong Orchid is really putting on a show. The air is filled with its laundry soap scent and the bees and butterflies are swarming it.

Unusually cold temps tonite and tomorrow - lows to -6C. Keeping fingers crossed for the Zone-pushing plants I have outside, especially the gardenia 'Summer Snow' I just planted this year

Good luck Maggie! I'll keep my fingers crossed too. Jeez. And to think I'm cold when it gets in the 60s

Good luck Maggie! Our temps are down to single digits with the wind chill factor. Our high temp is 27 F. Maybe you can provide the gardenia some protection by wrapping it with burlap just today.

Hi everyone it has been a while :( but back again :) here is what is in flowers over the channel in Cold rainy no sun England :P

cattleya chocolate drop volcano queen- nice fragrance but not that strong

cattleya burana beauty - Outstanding fragrance

A unknow hybrid cattleya as you can see very similar to Burana beauty and just as fragrant

Angraecum Veitchii this one is night fragrant and has a kind of musky scent

cattleya white sparks panda

miltonia peter komp - strong fragrance

African Gardenia (Mitriostigma axillare) nearly always in flower! such a good house plant

viburnum bodnantense dawn Bonsai just coming into flower

Mahonia in full bloom filling the garden with its lovely perfum

And a couple of new ones that should flower soon

oncidium twinkle fragrance fantasy

small cutting of Daphne Perfume Princess! supposedly world most frgrant shrub :O :P

And my Pamianthe peruviana has grown really well since i first bought it! hoping to see some flowers sometime soon :) still think it looks like a Leek

Wow! So lovely to see these beauties as we are awaiting another snowfall this weekend. You know the daphne 'Perfume Princess' had me googling in a frenzy. Why are you torturing me in this way?? Sheesh...can only hope for it to hit our shores...like the wieseneri <sniff>

Sorry Maggie :( i am sure it will only be a matter of time before it hits your shores :) Now if you can just tell logees to open up a store over here i will not be so green with envy ;)

http://www.tesselaar.com/plants/daphne-perfume-princess/ :)

I wish I could order from Logees too:( They don't ship to Canada. There are a few US nurseries that do, but the costs of shipping and phytosanitary certificates are prohibitive. Still, I have done that a couple of times and if I get enough plants on a list, I will probably do that again in future.

This new daphne sounds amazing - wow, the flowers are all the way along the stems! And I love the growth habit and size. Definitely will keep my eye out for this one.

Fragrant, WELCOME BACK.... By the way, how in the world do you keep the leaves and flowers on that African Gardenia from turning black? Every time I get one, eventually I will loose it to this browning first on the cluster of flowers once they are spent then the leaves too..

When you say it makes a good houseplant, are you meaning inside then outside for summer? Inside all the time? Sunny window sill? Dry air?

I am thinking that they do not like wet or very humid environments which could explain the brown, probably botrtis or something similar...

Hey Maggie,........ Are you getting any of the Arctic Temps we are all getting these days? For some reason I keep thinking you are is not affected by all the dreaded cold blasts...

Thanks

Yep, we had a cold snap - more snow than we've had in a very long time. I'm certain there's some damage to my plants. Hope I haven't lost any.

Anyway, it's warming up a bit and will be raining this coming week.

Btw Fragrant, what mahonia is that?

The African Gardenia is inside nearly all year round i only move it outside in the summer with my hoyas if we are expecting a heavy rain storm! It is in a clay pot and i only water it once a week in winter. I also use small fans to keep good air movement as its with a small group of other plants.

Maggie i believe it is Mahonia × media 'Charity' it has been the the ground a few years now

Mahonia looks amazing. Their size has always put me off - how does it respond to pruning? Reports on the fragrance is somewhat inconsistent as well, so it's intriguing to hear your comments.

We had a horrible dump of snow - wet and so very heavy. Lost another significant branch on my beloved southern magnolia:( Many tree branches weighed down to the ground, and a lot of damage to shrubs. My poor daphnes! I'm sure they will need severe pruning and take a while to recover their shape/size. Thank goodness warmer temps coming & rain all week.

Oh well, there's a lot worse going on in the world today...

Maggie, oh my God..That is a lot of snow! Do you mean that the Magnolia still has leaves on them? What kind? Are they hardy to my Zone?

It is a beautiful scene and so surreal, but boy can a lot of snow damage a lot. If you get another below 0 cold blast, at least everything under the blanket of snow will be safe, unless of course it all melts away before then..It has been crazy here too..Yesterday it was 56 degrees and by 7 a.m. it was 15...Now it's low teens and then 45 by Thursday...I hope to God I can keep some snow cover to protect some of my roses I never got to protect and Daphne..By the way, the only two I have are all covered for the winter, thank God..

If it make you feel any better, I lost my only Star Magnolia to drought this past summer..The whole thing turned brown and died from months of nothing more than an inch or two of rain all year and not a drop for two summer in a row..Horrible..

Stay safe and warm)

Mike, I gently knocked the snow off, and after the temps rose a bit, the branches sprang up as beautiful as ever. No damage at all to the leaves. I lost a couple of branches but it'll all grow out. It's a m. grandiflora 'St Mary' and it's hardy to Zone 7.

Sorry to hear you lost the star magnolia. Didn't know it could get that dry in Massachusetts.

This is the most snow we've had in many years.

To be honest Maggie i have not really pruned it i have just let it be. But i would agree with the inconsistent part! even my plant can be abit hit and miss on the fragrance guess like most plants its all down to the conditions. On the plus side the black birds love!!! the berries

It looks enormous! Love the plants with tags attached in foreground. I am always desperate to get things in the ground before winter but somehow always end up with a few sitting around:)

btw it does look like the type of plant best left to its own devices

The plant in the foreground is another new one for me! Magnolia zenii which is on the Red list of endangered plants. Hoping it flowers next spring here is a description "A rare new species from China introduced in the 80's. Blooming in early
February, it is likely the earliest blooming magnolia. Very fragrant
flowers are about 4 inches across, with purple-pink striping on the
outside and white on the inside."

Very cool. Look forward to seeing pics of it in bloom!

My winter scene: scattered orchid blooms after a nice rain last night. 76 degrees.

Sigh