Flower Scent Gardens has the best white heliotrope (heliotropum arborescens)that smells heavenly. I recommend them highly. From seed, the purple old fashioned marine type (2 foot tall, not mini) has given me gorgeous scented flowers. I think different sources produce variations in scent, so experiment. The white definitely is more fragrant, I grow them in pots at nose height, with blue trailing lobelia and tiny petunias, because in my opinion they are a waste on the ground if you can't smell them. Beware of the perennial heliotrope (valeriana) because it smells like cat urine to me...an entirely different plant used as a medicinal herb.

Any one with seeds of these? Thanks.

Hello I'm looking for silver dollar eucalyptus (or any other small eucalyptus suitable as an indoor plant) and heliotrope (heliotropium arborescens). Please tell me if I spelled these wrong. Anything on my list is up for grabs, but I also have hollyhock, vegetables, and Kentucky coffee tree seeds. E-mail me or post if interested. Thanks someguy00273952@yahoo.com

There are many varieties of heliotrope but only a very few show up commercially. The most common seems to be "Marine", and IMHO, that is the least fragrant of all. It seems as if in the breeding, they bred out the fragrance. I've also seen a variety called "Atlantis," one called "Iowa" and a smaller variety that I grew last year, but I can't remember the name. I really should save tags. That really small one, I disliked...no fragrance...and never grew much. I got my best variety from a local nursery, and the name was something like Marine 2000 improved. (Please forgive my memory gap), I'll try to find them again this year and tell you the name for sure, but that was the only place I ever saw it. I loved it so much that I overwintered a plant in the house and have taken some cuttings. Heliotrope are easy to grow from cuttings, but like it warm.I've also frow Marine from seed. Too much water will rot them when they are small, but as the stem gets woodier, it becomes more resistant to rot. If they dry out, the leaves turn crispy black rather quickly. The taller varieties seem better for fragrance, and the lighter colored ones seem to have more fragrance too. I've never seen too many butterflies on them. Once, an Eastern Tailed blue, and an occasional Gray Hairstreak, sometimes a Cabbage white, and often Monarchs in the fall when they are desperate for nectar. Maryann