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zippity1

fragrant plants not so fragrant???

zippity1
10 years ago

I have an orange zest cestrum, a Rangoon creeper, and
a maid of Orleans jasmine, they have very little to no fragrance when blooming, could I be doing something wrong?
of course it's early but they didn't have fragrance last year either??
my most fragrant plants are Sweet Almond Verbena and Abraham Darby (Austin) rose
and i'll take fragrance over appearance almost any day

Comments (5)

  • beachplant
    10 years ago

    no idea, the rangoon creeper that was in my backyard always smelled great-Ike killed it, and the one at the community garden isn`t blooming yet.
    Maid of Orleans I never found to have a really strong scent.
    My orange peel cestrum is HUGE so I will have to go out and see if it has any fragrance. Wish I had known how big they get before I planted it, I whack at it all the time.
    Tally HO!

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    10 years ago

    You're not doing anything wrong. There's been a lot of discussion about scents on the Rose Forums. After scores of posts about the differences and the lacks the general consensus was that people smell things differently and there are certain scents that can't be picked up at all by some people.

    Also plants produce more and less scent at different times of the day, air temperatures and humidity. So keep trying. There was a poster on here that couldn't understand why her night blooming jasmine didn't produce a scent for her. Come to find out she had an early bedtime and the jasmine doesn't release it's scent until 10 pm or later.

    All the plants you mention very smell nice to me and are fairly strong. However, I have noticed that Rangoon Creeper smells strong at times and other times I get very little scent. I think it has to do with the age of the blooms and the time of day.

    Lucky for certain family members some scents don't bother me as much as they do them. I don't mind skunk spell so I'm the one who gets to bathe the dogs when they get into skunks. Plus I'm the one who got to clean out the freezer with venison and fish when we came home from vacation and found the power has been off for a week. I don't especially enjoy those smells, not by a long shot, but they don;t gag me either.

    Bottom line: scent is a very individual thing. But I understand how you feel. I love fragrant plants.

  • bossjim1
    10 years ago

    My Rangoon Creeper is most fragrant when it is very warm and very humid. Maid of Orleans is not the most fragrant of jasmines. If you pick a bloom and hold it close to your nose, it's nice, but only whiffs out into the yard when in very full bloom. I have never noticed a fragrance at all from the centrum. I didn't t even realize it was suppose to be fragrant. Maybe the name refers to the color instead of fragrance. Right now, the star jasmine is nearly overpowering with it's fragrance, but it won't last too much longer.
    Jim

  • roselee z8b S.W. Texas
    10 years ago

    Sorry, I made a mistake. I don't have orange zest cestrum, just have the yellow cestrum from Jim. It's a wonderful plant, blooms all the time, but I don't get a scent from it.

  • zippity1
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    thank ya'll i'll be patient and not expect so much
    we were told at a gardening class by a writer from a Houston newspaper that the cestrum would be fragrant
    and large and invite butterflies etc. so naturally I got one and looked for fragrance the first bloom
    mine is in an enormous pot --hoping it will be ok there til we move to Angleton next spring- and I can put it in the ground