However it is not very warm or humid here right now, do you think it might start having a stronger better scent come summer? It is my first brunfelsia and I have little experience with how reliable they are.

It otherwise is very healthy and happy though!

I have two, from different sources, and bought a year apart, and both were very fragrant last summer, the scent starting at dusk. They also bloom lavishly and often, lots of blooms opening at once, and then new ones coming at very short intervals.

The fragrance was there all summer, and continued for a month or so under lights in the fall. In FLA you should get months and months of blooms.

They do try to bloom here in the winter indoors but the blooms are not as fragrant (or as lavish), not surprising.

My bet would be that you will have wonderful blooms and scent next summer. My experience with nitida has been that it is really a wonderful plant. It also has a graceful "fan" shape, so the plant itself is quite pretty.

Good luck!

You could try a very light application of fertilizer, but you don't want to overdo it during the winter, when it's not growing as much. Brunfelsias can be sensitive to chill, so try to keep it warm and give it a good amount of sun if it's in a pot.

Keep in mind also that scents differ from nose to nose -- your plant might not be a strong as others, or it may not grab you the same way, but this species routinely gets good reviews around this forum, so stick with it a bit longer!

Jim

Brunfelsia Americana - highly FRAGRANT of Cloves. Wafts well
*Brunfelsia Gigantica - absolutely stunning fragrance Exquisite wafter.
*Brunfelsia Isola - highly FRAGRANT
*Brunfelsia Lactea - highly FRAGRANT wafts extremely well
*Brunfelsia Nitida - highly FRAGRANT. Equisite wafter
Brunfelsia, yesterday, today and tomorrow. Not fragrant at all.

I have others but they have not flowered yet. Hope they are as good as the ones above.

Angel Smell -I am considering putting a michelia alba in an area that I want a small tree. Not sure how it will take to it, though warm here the climate is different from California where so many of the people here who have them seem to live. I did smell one at a nursery once and it was delicious!

Being winter and all, it may just need time. It is doing very well otherwise though and has beautiful leaves.

Michelia are wonders to behold but grow quite fast [mostly vertical] so give them room.

Logee's is a good source for Brunfelsias. My most favorite Brunfelsia flower for fragrance is B. jamaicensis.

I saw a large brunfelsia at a nursery last week that had a gorgeous fragrance even in the day -though I had to put my nose in it to tell. My hunch is it would be wafting at night though. The smell was more on the 'fresh sweet' side and not all cloying or thick. It was heavenly but the tag was messed up and I could not decipher what variety it was. It was white/cream like my flowers were, but the leaves were different and not such a dark green.

Its interesting that some species among fragrant plants are less obvious or just barely have a scent. For example, the brunfelsia pauciflora has never put out a fragrance for me but it may be due to temperature/light. On the other hand, the crape jasmine is also known as a basically senseless species but one has produced a nice smell on occasion for me. I haven't figured out what contributes to a plant's ability to produce a scent. Anyone with advice?

Jim

In my experience, B. americana, B. jamaicensis and B. gigantea all have equally lovely, though slightly different perfumes, and all are much larger growers than B. nitida. All of them, at least for me, produce a higher percentage of green, leafy growth and put less energy into blooming than does B. nitida. But then again, all of my plants are still less than a year old, so perhaps they will become more floriferous in the coming years. I adore the scent of B. americana, so I hope so :-)