|
There's nothing better than
smelling a sweet, fragrant flower in the home or office. During
winter, especially, when outdoor gardens are but a memory, it's a
pleasure to be indoors enjoying the fragrance of these indoor plants.
There are many different indoor plants with fragrant blooms and I
can't think of anything better than standing inside by the window
sniffing their fragrant blooms while a snow storm rages outside.
Some of the fragrant indoor
plants throw their scent, in effect becoming a natural air freshener,
while others invite you to stick your nose right into their blooms to
enjoy their wonderful bouquet. There's something about smelling a
fragrant flower that makes you feel good. Click on a plant below to
order it from Pernell Gerver's Online Store.
 One
of my favorite house plants for fragrance is fragrant
olive. It's a shrubby plant that
has oblong, glossy, almost-leathery, leaves. It bears tiny,
creamy-white flowers that in themselves are nearly insignificant and
easy to overlook, unless you happen to smell them. They have a sweet
fragrance that to me resembles apricots. It's amazing how strong
their fragrance is considering how tiny they are. Each flower is only
about a quarter of an inch long and wide. They are borne in small
clusters in the leaf axils as well as all along its woody stems, even
on bare branches. It blooms all year long.
 African
gardenia is an easy-to-grow
relative of gardenia that blooms reliably in the home, blooming
almost continuously all year long with no extra effort. It bears
small, star-shaped flowers that are pink in bud and open creamy
white. The flowers are carried in clusters all up and down its stems
and even the smallest stem will have a few flowers on it. There are
dozens and dozens of flowers in bloom at any one time and their
fragrance is wonderful, very similar to gardenia, albeit a little
more subtle. The fragrance easily carries on the breeze, perfuming a
room. It's a shrubby plant that looks similar to gardenia, but on a
smaller scale. It has short, slender leaves that are carried on woody
stems. It rarely grows larger than a couple of feet high and wide,
making a good choice for even a small windowsill garden. Not a fussy
plant, African
gardenia can be grown just about
anywhere in the home - in sunny or shady window, in cool or warm
temperatures, and in low or high humidity.
 Winter-blooming
jasmine is another favorite
fragrant house plant of mine. It's a vining plant that has slender
stems that carry segmented leaves. In mid winter it bears large
clusters of star-shaped flowers. The flowers are pink in bud and
unfurl pure white. Their fragrance is sweet with a hint of spice and
it's used in the perfume industry. The fragrance easily perfumes a
room and you'll smell this plant before you see it. The flower
clusters are long lasting and continue to bloom for many weeks right
in the middle of winter.
 Heliotrope
is an old-fashioned flower that's been grown for many generations.
It was popular during Victorian times and it's still a favorite of
indoor and outdoor gardeners. It bears large umbels of flowers that
stand atop its foliage. It's always in bloom. There are both white
and purple varieties of heliotrope. Purple
heliotrope smells like cherry pie
and white heliotrope
has a fragrance like baby powder. It's said that our sense of smell
is the strongest at evoking memories and that's certainly true.
Whenever I smell white
heliotrope, I'm reminded of a
conversation I had with the late John Quill, the former longtime
local TV weatherman. In one of my TV segments I talked about fragrant
house plants and had brought to the studio with me examples of each
and what each plant smelled like. Because white
heliotrope smells like baby powder,
I had baby powder there in front of the plant to help describe its
fragrance. As John was walking around the studio in his daily
exercise routine, he noticed my display. I had him smell the white
heliotrope and he swore I had
poured the baby powder on it. To this day I'm not sure if I convinced
him that I had not! Unfortunately, modern varieties of heliotrope
have no fragrance, but I've kept both of these fragrant white and
purple varieties going for years and years.
Click
here to browse Pernell Gerver's Online Store
To
read my past choices for Plant of the Month click here.
|
Pernell
Gerver, Horticultural Communication Services All rights reserved. 
Pernell
Gerver's
