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fragrantgrower

Feeling frustrated

I've got tons and tons of fragrant plants, most of them in pots, and yet hardly anything is blooming right now.

Sure I've got my reliable sambac jasmines to sniff and a few new plumerias I bought this year and the tuberose but I look around at my collection and wish my Brunfelsia gigantea and B. jamaicensis (which is dropping leaves and looking pitiful and has never once bloomed for me), various cymbidium and other orchids, tons of new brugmansias, Plumeria stenopetala, Millingtonia hortensis, Jasminum azoricum, various passifloras, etc. would bloom!

Feels like all I'm doing is just watering and fertilizing (in other words maintenance) and not getting much reward for all my hard work.

Guess I need to be patient and stop complaining but I think the dog days of summer are starting to get to me. Waking up early to water everything and then having to water some things again at lunch and then again when I get home is getting old.
I'm starting to question the responsibility and dedication required to keep up with my madness. Laugh.

-Robert

Comments (8)

  • fragrant2008
    9 years ago

    I know exactly how you feel Robert if it was not for the orchids i would only have a Jasmine in flower for fragrance :(
    Lots and lots of pots with green leaves but no flowers my tuberos and Plumeria are showing no signs of flowering the only thing that has buds forming is my Brunfelsia.
    I have told myself you have to take the good with the Bad and look forward to late summer flowering plants and the orchids which have lots of buds but will be a few weeks off from flowering

  • Robert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    So true, Brian!

    Or we can just keep adding to our collections by buying fragrants already in bloom. ;)

    My Brunfelsia americana and Aloysia virgata (sweet almond verbena) from Almost Eden came in today and both have blooms! Woo hoo!
    Bought the sweet almond verbena mostly for the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds but I've always been curious about its scent.
    Can't wait to sniff the brunfelsia tonight! :)

    -Robert

  • kemistry
    9 years ago

    I've decided to grow only plants that bloom well for me ;)

    OOO Robert, update me on that brun scent.

  • fragrant2008
    9 years ago

    Lol Robert i have told myself i have no more room!! unless it is something really special but i have just noticed buds on my variegated Brugmansia as well :)
    I also ordered those two Jasmine so maybe nexy year i will have more flowers ( yes i know i just said no more room :P )
    i might need help ;)

  • Robert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Kem, will do!

    Brian, Congrats!

    I've got some buds on some brugs but nothing to sniff just yet. Also noticed my Brassavola nodosa has a bloom spike developing.

    And I think we all need help. ;)

    It should be interesting watching me panic come fall when I have to find room for all these pots! Laugh.

    -Robert

  • meyermike_1micha
    9 years ago

    Robert, I feel your pain..

    My thing is that all mine are flowering, but I have not a darn moment to sit by them and enjoy their scent..I water them, and notice, then run off to work..Stick my nose in one for a few seconds and then that's it..Or sit one in the house, just to look like crap within a few days.

    It also seems that my plants are always doing awesome and smell great in the greenhouse, but why not inside my home where I spend most of my time..?

    Hey Robert, at least the plants you mentioned are still growing and not dead like mine...

    This is why you need orchids as Brian says...They never leave you disappointed when everything else just stays green...

    You will love that almond verbena, although they only flower when hot and bright, once or maybe twice a year. They can look like crap in the long days of winter, almots like sticks, but bounce beautfully once they are exposed to long days and hot sun)

    Nice plants by the way..I can't believe they sent you one in bloom...They must of heard your pain...Boy if we could just have room for dozens of the same plant incase the other 11 decide they just want to fart all year...

    Don't give up friend, they will make uyou smile an many gloomy days...

    MIke

  • wanna_run_faster
    9 years ago

    I know how you feel, Robert.

    I grew 2 fragrant corkscrew vines from seed, sheltered and protected them in an ice storm, and now they have taken off like the plant from The Little Shop of Horrors...reaching out and trying to eat everything in it's path! BUT only one (admittedly very pretty) flower so far! I do have hope...tonight there appears to be a bunch more forming so maybe one day I'll have enough flowers that I can actually smell the fragrance!

    Helen

  • true_blue
    9 years ago

    Robert I feel for you. That's why I try to apply the less is more motto :-) Actually I have a rule. In order to buy a new plant I have to throw a plant out. So, this way, I get rid of a lot of plants.

    Also, I've realized the more I obsess about some plant the more it refuses to cooperate. The moment I leave the plant alone and let it be, it surprises me, if by then I haven't thrown it out ;-)

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