I have a few Christmas Cacti in bloom and an Amaryllis I'm waiting on. Next year I may decide to get crazy and force some bulbs. On a day like today (snow, snow, snow) it would be heavenly to get a smell of Spring!

Smell of spring. Ohhh Ja, I have a Sauromatum Venosum bulb blooming right now. The flower is a day or two away from opening up but it is supposed to smell like rotting meat. I also have three amaryllis blooming right now. Pasadena, Elvas and Apple Blossom. Pasadena is a very fast grower for any one who is interrested. I would have more but the darn skunk dug them from their pots over the summer and chewed up a couple of them really bad. We got unwillingly got a cat recently that just showed up one day. We felt bad because it was so cold so we put it in the basement. It didn't have a litter box so it dug up my amaryllis that I had stored down there for dormancy. They were pretty sliced up but I think that is what caused some of my amaryllis to create offsets. That and I threw rooting hormone in the wounds. So out of Nine bulbs only three are blooming.

For the fragrance of spring all winter, try sweet olive (osmanthus fragrans). My little plant has been flowering for more than two years, filling the roonm with the scent of summer - inconspicuous flowers but oh so sweet!

Just found Amaryllis bulbs at my local Home Depot for $1. They had smaller bulbs, too. Needless to say, I have 5 new ones!

Did home depo have any unusual amaryllis like tiny ones or doubled ones?

Not the $1 ones. They had solid red and a red with a yellowish center. They had some blooming in pots also, but I didn't notice what they were.

For the winter windowsill I like white cyclamen, but only the fragrant ones. You have to sniff a lot of cyclamens till you find the one with the earthy perfume that makes me swoon. Also, the tall pink primroses have a nice scent. I get them at Adams...their greenhouse makes me smile this time of winter.

This time of year I always long for a greenhouse room attached to my house. I have so few south facing places to grow plants...I'm stuck with rainforest floor plants that can take low light. Do any of them flower significantly, I wonder?

I also wanted to say that I had a whole planter box full of colorful petunias that self sowed on my classroom windowsill in soil left from the summer. What a spectacular show in winter! And the scent was wonderful.

Sambac jasmine flowers indoors in good light (it doesn't need full sun) and has a heavenly scent. The flowers last only one day, but they're plentiful. A gardenia is budding up indoors under a grow light  but that's "cheating," I guess.

Does anyone have a Barbados Lily?
I have had mine for many years and it now has 6 flowers ready to open....and through my window I see snow!
Hang in there...Spring is 'round the corner !~
Joyce