Blooming in July 2017!
Aglaia odorata has been lightly perfuming the arbor with its delicate lemon scent.
Lonicera periclymenum 'Scentsation' is blooming nearby. I have to stick my nose to the blooms to enjoy their scent.
What fragrant plants are blooming in July for you?
Comments (65)
Robert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agoHa! I'm always torn between the two. Maybe that's why I have my Mysore right next to my huge Belle for easy sniffing and comparing. :)
kandhi
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Show Us Your Gardens - A photo Thread - July 2017
Comments (54)I love Annabelle as well - the color that goes with anything, the long bloom time, and the full heads. I find the newer ones look overblown to me with bloom heads as big as my head. I don't find that most years Annabelle takes much to keep it from flopping, though this year it is a bit splayed because of the many hard downpours and even a hail storm with 3/8" stones that lasted something like 10 minutes. It has a lot of company in the group of "could look better" plants....See MoreJuly 2017 Pics!! Let's see them everyone)))
Comments (136)So many wonderful pictures to look at! I wish there was a "love" button that we could push. ♡ Amanda, beautiful pic of your son and the Hibiscus. Your citrus are doing splendid this summer. John, love the barred owl. Beautiful picture. Evan, I am always in awe of your trees and all of the fruitful varieties that you have! Your key lime is so productive! Wow! Have the Pomona Sweet Lemon and the Cocktail Grapefruit produced decent, edible fruit for you yet? I have a young Pomona, but am still waiting (since last season) for a mailing nursery to get the Cocktail back in stock. I hope the Oro Blanco fruit taste much better for you this time around. Brian, I love your "tropical" paradise! Just lovely! Perfection! Mike and Brian, we have had a number of nights that have been down into the forties ! July sure feels more like fall. What's up with that?? Lol..The only good thing about it is that the cool nights helped my Santa Teresa Lemons set some flowering buds. I hope to get some lemons that stay on and mature this time around. The cooler weather has not been good for my tomatoes. I usually have ripe tomatoes by this time and my garden tomatoes are still small and green. Mike, what a stunning orchid! I am so happy for you that it finally bloomed after three years! Well worth the wait. :) Laura, Kevin the key lime looks great in his new pot! I look forward to the key lime pie pictures in the near future, I do not envy you getting him to fit back in the house this fall though.. :D We had some rain showers earlier in the week but I was able to fertilize all of the trees on Friday. Rain in the forecast for tomorrow evening!...See MoreJuly 2017 and Tropicals taking center stage in TX z9a
Comments (21)Beautiful Ms BossyV. I think I grew the black Jewel one in Hawaii and my samoan neighbors stole them the night they had their luau. They stole and ate my neighbors dog too. My neighbor wasn't too upset. I was about the plants. The neighbors did invite both of us haoles over.We called them Pake (Chinese) Taro. I didn't think it was edible. I guess I was wrong or they used it to wrap the dog....See MoreJuly 2017, Week 4, Garden Talk
Comments (123)Rebecca, If I had small boys who would enjoy shooting squirrels, I'd put them in the car and drive all day to bring them to you. I hope you can find a couple of little guys to borrow who want to come over and hang out with you and shoot squirrels with big Super Soaker type water guns. Augustus and the chickens do enjoy the sprinkler. I put a sprinkler in the yard and run it for them every so often---generally not long enough to really help the grass, but long enough for everyone to play in it. It isn't just the poultry that enjoy it--wild birds of every size from huge crows to tiny hummingbirds also enjoy having the sprinkler on. They especially love when I have it on underneath trees so that they can sit in the trees and let the water from the sprinkler cool them down while they sit there. This is how Tim knows he is married to a lunatic woman----he'll come home from work, the sprinkler will be on in the yard and he'll walk inside and say "gave up on rain and watering the yard?" and I'll say "nope, watering the birds". lol Or, he'll come home from work and there's huge puddles in the driveway. He'll ask hopefully "Did it rain?" and I'll say "Nope. I made puddles for the birds and the butterflies." I also will turn on the soaker hoses to water the clay soil around the foundation so that the foundation won't crack and shift (we've been successful so far---here since 1999 and the foundation remains intact despite some huge cracks in the ground in areas where I don't water). The soaker hose doesn't run at a high enough rate to really cause puddles, but it wets down the ground and the chickens will lay on the wet ground because it feels slightly cooler. Whatever it takes. In really hot weather, we run fans in the chicken coops to at least give them some air flow. Even when I stop watering the garden for the most part, I never stop watering the birds or the soil around the foundation. Melissa, Hopefully the plants will recover. If a person must spray with soap, it is best to use a real insecticidal soap like Safer's Insecticidal Soap as it is micronized so it is less likely to burn---and also because it is real soap. Back in the day (when all of us were much younger) you could use dishwashing liquid because it really was made of soap. So, flash forward to the 2000s and dishwashing liquids are not soap any more---they are much harsher detergents and also contain degreasers and other chemicals that can strip the cuticles off plants and leave them vulnerable to burning---either chemical burning or sunscalding due to the stripped cuticles. You still can buy real soap in most stores--look for the bars of Fels-Naptha on the laundry aisle (just cut shavings off them and dissolve them in water), or Murphy's Oil Soap, which the last time I checked still is soap and not detergent. Or, if you have any local stores that carry the Dr. Bronner's line of pure castille soap (or any brand of castille soap), those are real soap and not detergents. I always have Dr. Bronner's lavender soap, and usually his peppermint soap and tea tree oil soap on hand all the time, but use them more for pests around the house---like ants trying to come indoors, for example. I do not actually use soap in the garden myself. Well, maybe once every few years, and the only way I use it in the garden itself is to walk out to the garden with Safer's Insecticidal Soap in a spray bottle in my hand and then I spray the soap directly on the pest that is vexing me---which only would be blister beetles or a cluster of squash bug or leaf-footed bug nymphs. Nothing else is enough of a problem for me to bother with the soap. I never spray soap on my plants if I can avoid it--other than whatever tiny portion of the plant gets hit when I'm spraying a blister bug or a cluster of freshly-hatched nymphs. I don't think soap is good for plants in our climate and avoid its use as much as possible. Really, I always start with the lowest toxicity solution as a part of IPM and that's hand-picking the bugs and then dropping them into soapy water to drown, cutting them in half with my scissors or carrying a bowl of soapy water and flicking pests off the plants and into the bowl of soapy water....and I bet I don't do any of the above more than a half-dozen times per year. I just wait for the beneficial insects to kill the bad guys, and then I deal with the few bad guys that the beneficials aren't able to control. I've learned that the less I use pesticides in my garden, the fewer insects I have overall, and that is true virtually every year. When I start interfering in the natural ecosystem of the garden, that's when pest problems skyrocket. I hope you get the rain that is in your forecast. They keep pushing our rain further out and decreasing the expected amount, so my hopes are falling accordingly. It has to rain again eventually, but y'all need it a lot worse up there so I surely hope you get it. Nancy, Poor downtown Wagoner. I hate it when a downtown area burns---often you lose some charming older, historical buildings and that is sad. I'm glad you had a good day with your mom....and then you got to see her in what probably is her more usual (lately) confused state. It is a reminder of how dementia works---even after over a decade with Alzheimer's and a long, slow decline, my dad still could have a rare lucid moment or hour here or there where it seemed like he was himself again for a while. Those rare lucid periods became more and more rare (almost nonexistent) near the end, but then on his last week, when he was in hospice care, it was like God gave him back to us for a day or so and we had actual conversations for the first time in a couple of years, and he seemed to have a clue about who we were and what was going on....and then a couple of days later he was gone. I am so grateful we had that couple of good days before we lost him. To me, just those couple of good days felt like some sort of miracle. It was hard on my mom, though, because she misinterpreted those good days as a sign he had miraculously been cured of Alzheimer's Disease and started second-guessing everything that was going on medically. It sounds like your trip has been very eventful. If I was only going to grow one black tomato, and flavor was all that mattered, I'd grown Black Krim. A lot of people don't like it though because it splits and cracks a lot in heavy rainfall and is not the most productive plant. So, for someone who might have high expectations for higher productivity and less cracking, maybe JD's Special C Tex (it is really early in my garden), Vorlon (also early), True Black Brandywine, Black From Tula or Carbon. Or, if your friend would prefer a hybrid, then he cannot go wrong with Cherokee Carbon, a hybrid of Cherokee Purple and Carbon. I continue to pray for all of you and for Titan's situation. I so hope that he is cured. I hope the new vet will have some better options that help him recover and without the misery of throwing up the antiobiotics over and over again. Poor doggy. I know it is stressful for Gary to have to deal with it alone but he is perfectly capable and you need to enjoy your time up there and not rush back prematurely after everything you went through on that long, long drive. When we first moved here from Ft. Worth, I missed everybody and everything terribly and drove back down there almost weekly. For a long time, Oklahoma felt like the new place and Texas felt like home. I never second guessed our decision to move here but it sure took me a long time to adjust. Gradually over time the driving down to Ft Worth so often ceased and eventually almost halted altogether other than trips down for family get-togethers and holidays. At some point, I realized that I had let go of the idea that Fort Worth was home...now it is the place where I gew up, but it stopping feeling like home in the early 2000s. The growth down in the metro area is just so massive and miles and miles of once open-countryside that I adored is now just one big massive new housing development and the accompanying strip malls after another. Every time we drive down, there's less countryside and more concrete---and at an astonishing rate. I hate all the concrete and the traffic and I hate seeing former farmland continually converted to more concrete. Now, when we are down there, even though I am thrilled to spend time with my family, the fact is that we cannot get in that car, get out of there and get back up here to our rural area quickly enough for me. I believe the DFW metro area has gained a couple of million people since we left it. That is insane, and it is never-ending. Southern Oklahoma is and always will be home despite the frustration of near-constant drought and venomous snakes. Moving here still is the best decision we've ever made. Lots of Texas areas that still had somewhat reasonably priced land when we moved here and that might have been viable options for rural country living down in Texas closer to our family are just concrete jungles now and I'm so glad we choose to move further out to an area we thought would stay rural for the rest of our lives. Many of the little rural Texas towns we loved and could have relocated to back then are huge now---like Frisco and Celina. Even Denton, which wasn't small but still had semi-rural neighborhods, is huge now and not nearly so many rural or semi-rural areas remain around it. I know you'll be happy to get back home to Oklahoma where you belong, but it also is good that you got to make that trip home to spend time with your loved ones. Dawn...See MoreRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agoHi Kandhi!
So glad my post got your attention. I miss seeing your fragrant goodies. :)
The jasmines are at least 4 years old by now. I normally do cut mine back in the fall before bringing them down into the basement but I didn't cut back our biggest one very much so maybe that's why we have so many blooms this year. The problem is that it's freaking huge. The plant is over 3' wide. It's in a pot that's around 17" x 17" so it's super heavy to move. I'm actually going through chemo right now and have lost a lot of strength so it will be interesting to see if I've recovered enough come fall to deal with these huge pots. I might have to hire some young strapping lads to help. Laugh. Here's a pic of how wide the plant is and a pic of the base of the plant. Eventually I'll have to cut it back and root prune it since it's so large.
As for your cestrum question Cestrum 'Orange Peel' is sometimes fragrant at night. For me it's almost never fragrant at night but when it is the fragrance is a light citrus like scent.
jasminegal
6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agojasminegal
6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years ago
fragrant2008
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agomichaelspokane
6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agojasminegal
6 years agoFrench perfume jasmine just started blooming. All my vining jasmines have become monsters this year. I have a big task ahead in winter.
Robert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agojasminegal
6 years agoscott_madison Zone 5a- Madison, WI
6 years agoA very nice specimen of Nicotiana alata in my garden this summer. Plant is almost 5' tall and 5' wide. I've had to discreetly stake it as it grew. Looks sad and pathetic during the day.... But as the sun sets... Wow!! The flowers perk up and pour forth that delicious fragrance all nite long!! I've grown this for years... But never had a plant as gorgeous as this.
Robert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agoWow, Scott! Gorgeous specimen. Congrats!
My plant's leaves started during brown so I cut it back. Didn't know if it was from too much sun or maybe even the Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Thinking about getting rid of it and planting old fashioned vining petunias in the pot.
Brugmansia 'Dalai Lama' has been putting on a flush. It's actually my roommate's. I gave it to him a few years ago. It desperately needs to be repotted. Maybe that's why it's not so fragrant.
michaelspokane
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoHere's a few of my smelly critters:
Kleim's Hardy Gardenia
Plumeria cutting from an ABC store in Honolulu, purchased this winter. 95% sure it's Celadine. I brought back 14 cuttings from this vacay...
Dwarf Singapore Pink plumeria, blooming since last fall. The flower forgot it's supposed to be pink...
Wisteria 'Texas Purple', blooming since May. Sold as a Japanese, but twines like a Chinese (counter-clockwise)...
Oleander from a cutting I brought back from Hawai'i years ago, grew on and shared with a friend who teaches in the hort program at a local college and oversees the greenhouses there. After I lost my original plant, I was able to "repo" it from his stock. ALWAYS SHARE YOUR TREASURES!
Brunsfelsia gigantea. Smells like a clove studded honey glazed ham, warm from the oven, plus sugar. It amazes me that so many flowers have that smell (Brassavola nodosa, the Lady of the Night orchid, for example).
Star jasmine of mysterious provenance. It was (is) from Monrovia, and sold as Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Madison', but methinks not. The flowers have a root beer fragrance. 'Star of Toscane' is similar in color and scent, but smaller in foliage and flower...
Regular star jasmine. The smell of Summer. Just add barbecue...
Michelia figo. I guess it's now Magnolia figo. Bananas either way. Lots of bananas. A whole basket full of very ripe bananas beginning to turn into schnapps. And maybe someone nearby using nail polish remover. Well, maybe they just opened the bottle for a second...
Michelia (Magnolia) champaca. One of my favorite fragrances. I love the structure of this flower. It's similar to Platycodon, but it never opens. The bark of the stem is interesting, too. It almost looks like Chinese script, don't ya think?
OK, I'm joking. I put drops of Michelia champaca essential oil on that 'bud'!
michaelspokane
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoJust tonight, a real big deal! Michelia x alba. Ohhhh....mmmmm...yeahhhh...that's it...perfect...uh huh..........
I saw it open. Even as a bud, it made its presence known. Jelly knees...
Heaven better smell like this, or I ain't goin'! I ain't go-in!!!
scott_madison Zone 5a- Madison, WI
6 years agoOh so fragrant lilies!! Not sure of the variety.... It's been so long since I planted them. My Gardenia is also coming into bloom. Not sure of that variety either. Someone left it at the back gate of the greenhouse I work at a few years back. Nobody else wanted it so I took it home and repotted it. Has been thriving ever since. It is a grafted variety with huge flowers. Most blooms are at least 4"-5" across.
blutayle
6 years agojasminegal
6 years agoRobert my scentsation is blooming now. Love the fragrance. I have 3-4 clusters blooming and I love its wonderful scent
tom_d1026
6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoAlmost forgot, Jasminegal, so happy you like the scent of your honeysuckle! I noticed powdery mildew on the leaves of ours this morning. Guess I could spray it with powdered milk but I'm awfully lazy. Laugh. Michael, your post made me laugh. Loved your doctoring of the plant with essential oil.
Loving all the plant pics this month!
Woke up this morning and discovered my Oenothera macrocarpa finally bloomed. I could not detect any noticeable scent (the label states it's fragrant). Good thing I got it on sale! :)
jasminegal
6 years agoI loved the fragrance Robert but not really impressed now. In one day the scent is not that powerful the way they project it. And our temps are so humid right now.
Murraya paniculata's second flush
Brunfelsia americana is full with buds but won't be there to sniff when they bloom. Off for vacation. Hopefully DH will click a picture
Couldn't stop posting these beautiful visitors..
scott_madison Zone 5a- Madison, WI
6 years agoAnyone getting married this week? My Stephanotis has come into full flower. Needless to say my patio smells heavenly. Don't you pity those poor souls who always say.... "Oh, no, I can't be around flowers with a scent... I have allergies?" I'm just the opposite... I can't tolerate flowers without a scent. What's the point??
Vicki Chavez Conners
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoHere are my lovelies, they're what gets me through the heat of summer!
Robert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoIt's nice to have a bowl of Passiflora x belotii to sniff.
Jasminegal, I just got my Brunfelsia americana from Almost Eden today. I hope yours blooms again where you can sniff it. I know Kemistry's recently bloomed and he liked the scent and said it wafts. :)
tom_d1026
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
Hoya sp. Bintulu Borneo. First time bloomer. Waiting for a stronger fragrance to develop. Supposedly very strong but not yet. Soft, Jasmine-like scent. I want a super fragrant Hoya!!
kandhi
6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agoHi Kandhi, it's my old time favorite passiflora. The first one I grew so many years ago. It also goes by Passiflora x alatocaerulea. I can't recall where I got my latest but you can buy it from several sources like Logee's and eBay. It's not my favorite for scent but I still love sniffing it. My favorite would probably be Passiflora x decaisneana which to my nose smells like a Damask rose however it takes forever to bloom (it bloomed inside in November) and the vine is extremely long and difficult to keep alive inside during the winter.
Anyway yes, I would say the colors in the photo are pretty true to life. It's a lovely pink, lavender, white, and purple flower. :)
kemistry
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
Dar Sunset Zone 18
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoRobert! Thanks for the info about belotii. I saw this at one of the big box stores. I wasn't sure it was fragrant, so I didn't purchase it. I only saw the spent blooms and didn't notice any scent. Now I may have to go back for it.
I'm overwhelmed with so many pictures to enjoy here. I shall take some tomorrow to share too. :) In the mean time here are some pics from earlier this month.
Echinopsis subdenudata
noid double lily (forgot her name)
And Fukushu kumquat. These tiny flowers pack a powerful punch and not quite the same notes as other citrus flowers.
Dar Sunset Zone 18
6 years agoDouble Delight
For some reason my Sweet Chariot rose is blooming pale right now. Same lovely clove scent though.
Excuse the dirt on this Dwarf Pink Singapore. We were hit with a light monsoonal shower yesterday. It is so wafty over 65% humidity in what is an otherwise arid landscape.
And of course one of the best scents that can't be duplicated: a good old tuberose.
Robert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agoMy Plumeria 'Incognito' is blooming over at my roommate's. He posted a picture and said it smells lovely and that it takes him back to Hawaii. I need to go over and sniff it soon!
Robert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agoI finally have both the single and the double Polianthes tuberosa blooming at the same time to do a comparison sniff test. I've read the double is more fragrant and I've read the single is more fragrant. IMO the double is slightly more fragrant but takes FOREVER to open and I've no patience so I like the single better. The single is much quicker to open plus I like the natural looking open flowers. Oh, the double has been growing crowded in its original quart container from the nursery since last year and still put up a bloom spike this year for this lazy gardener who didn't dig up and separate the bulbs. :)
tom_d1026
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma)
6 years agotom_d1026
6 years agojasminegal
6 years agotom_d1026
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoscott_madison Zone 5a- Madison, WI
6 years agoRobert (zone 7a, Oklahoma) thanked scott_madison Zone 5a- Madison, WI
kemistry