Hi, Kasie. The fragrant ones are hard to come by, so you made a great find. I love the scent, but I've had a lot of scentless ones.

They grow easily, wilt when they need water. As for cuttings, I'm not good at that, but I think they would be easy if you pare back the unneeded leaves and wilty tips.

I'm sorry to hear about your bad luck with plumeria. I had a couple I had to let go-- no scent! Or maybe my nose didn't get it-- just weren't worth the space.

Let us know how you do with cuttings from your heliotrope!

Kasie, sorry about your experience with growing plumerias. I hope you try again with them. I've never seen the white Heliotrope. I bet it's gorgeous. I rooted a cutting of Heliotrope in a jar of water before transferring it to a container. Humidity is key. I love the smell of Heliotrope. It has a vanilla quality to it.

I grew the white and purple Heliotrope last year, It is one of my most favorite fragrant plants, I just love the vanilla smell, it really wafts, I found that the white variety is much more hardier than the purple one, I have 2 white ones that bloom all they time, the purple one lost all it's leaves and is very fussy. I have the white ones in areas where I can smell it when I come into my front door and when I sit on my patio. They do need a lot of water and fertilizer. They don't like real hot weather.

There's an azalea arborescens which has the same strong fragrance as the heliotrope and is supposed to flower in early spring. Not easy to find though.

Hi Kasie, did you detect any difference in the fragrance between the white and purple heliotrope? I'm growing the purple marine variety from seed for the first time. They are still too small yet to say much about them, except germination is erratic and growth is slow so far. I'm hoping I get a fragrant one in the batch. Enjoy your new plants.

Thank you everyone for such great responses.

Mehitabel - I didn't know there are also scentless heliotrope. I thought all heliotrope have that great scent. Learning new things every day. I do agree with Clare and AngelSmell that the scent smells like vanilla. Especially the white ones.

RizingPower1 - I'll have to look for azalea arborescens.

DanaNY - I love the purple one and the scent. I was not interested in the white ones. But being the scent lover that I am had to take a sniff. Personally, I think the white have that strong vanilla scent than the purple ones. Good luck with your seedlings. You must let us know what you get.

Kasie

I've not had much luck with growing heliotropes. Ones from seed haven't come to anything. I bought a "Marine" one from the garden centre and it was OK but not a resounding success - very dumpy, and it just sat there. The fragrance was very good, though. Exactly like the tinned cherry pie filling my mum used to use when I was a child. I'd really like to grow more, but a looser, more cottagey variety, if there is such a thing.

Apparently the most fragrant variety that one nursery stocks around here is "the queen". Supposed to be more scented than "white lady" which seems to be one of the strongest scented white heliotropes. I'm still keen on the idea of the azalea arborescens, you don't have to take it indoors in winter, mind you it's harder to take cuttings of, heliotropes can be propagated from cuttings fairly easily, don't even need bottom heat.

What my expierence has been with Pluneria may differ but here goes. I hand selected ones when I was in Hawaii off the big trees for color and scent. Scent varies when you get the cutting to grow. Sometimes increasing when it has been established for years. So it differs but will get it scent back I beleive the longer it is growing.
Lucy

I've found most of the heliotropes sold in the nurseries disappointing in fragrance, so if you've found one you like, it's worth attempting propogation. Otherwise, if you can get seeds for the old-fashioned species h. arborescens (not arborescens 'marine,' which I don't think smells like much, at least not consistently), they're easy to germinate, grow nearly three feet tall and are very fragrant. Probably the "cottagy" type that GardenNerd is looking for. I don't see the seeds sold in very many places, but I got mine a few years back from the Monticello catalog.