It's dark and the air is heavy and humid after the rains passed through today. Here in Florida we are in our rainy season so each day brings a new storm that dumps it's water on our lawns and plants. Tonight I sit on the lanai with the garden spotlight on the little pond I put in our backyard. The water snakes seem to be playing in the fountain from the spitter, weaving their way in and out of the plants. The lightening flashes off in the distant sky and the thunder rumbles in the distance. A stray breeze comes through the yard and suddenly I am overwhelmed with the scent of the night blooming jasmine! The breeze swirls around the yard and brings the scent of that silly kumquat tree, blossoming once again (third time this season), then I smell the sweet almond bush. As the breeze slowly dies down it brings to my nose the delicate scent of the Moonflower vine, just as I see the hummingbird moth making his way over to that corner of the garden.

There is nothing better for a flower gardener than to smell the sweet scents of his/her labor. Night time has always been a special time for me. The world sleeps while you sit there quietly watching. To have plants that bloom only at night is a special joy. You have to make the time to be there to see those very special blossoms. You have to forgo that early bedtime in order to enjoy the scents that only perfume the air after dark. Sitting in my chair, with the lightening flashing in the distance and the perfumes from my garden delighting my senses, I know I am very lucky. Sleep well and enjoy your gardens.

The moon flower vine has totally taken over my fragrance garden. It has wrapped itself around the branches of the night blooming jasmine and the sweet almond bush. I can count at least a dozen huge white blossoms glowing in the darkness and the scent is unbelievable! Who knew that plants that bloomed at night would smell so heavenly.

Sally your writing is so poetic!

Thank you!

Some day our computers will have not only pictures and sound, but smell and taste. Then I will post a picture of my back yard after dark. You will see the light on the garden pond and be able to see Sammy the snake playing in the water from the garden spitter. You will see the flashes of lightening in the sky beyond the woods and hear the faint rumbles of thunder in the distance. You will marvel at the sound of frogs and toads croaking, peeping and singing in the woods and you will taste the sharp bite of the ice cold beer as you sit back and enjoy the smell of the night blooming plants. Some day....when some little five year old invents this adapter to our computer....

I look forward to the day though!!!! I'd love to smell your garden.

Irene has moved up the coast....up beyond the North East. She's pulled in the hot and humid air from the Gulf and just stepping out onto the lanai pops the sweat out onto your skin....even at 9:00 pm. It's 85 degrees. It's dark, the frogs are singing and the night blooming flowers are in their glory! The soft scent of the gardenias is mixing with the bold scent of the Moonflower while the musky scent of the night blooming jasmine weaves it's scent trails throughout the night. The smell of the sweet almond tempers the smells of all of them. Sitting out on my lanai can sometimes be a sensory overload, and tonight is one of those nights. The smells, the sounds, the hot, heavy feel of the air...the distance lightening flashing in the east.... These are the nights that I love living in Florida.

We only have a couple of fragrant nighttime bloomers, tuberoses and moonflower vines, but they are superb when we are outside at night. We enjoy seeing the big nighthawk moths visiting the blossoms. I hope to get a photo of some of them soon.

@Sossman, I could almost hear Tennyson's "flute, violin [and] bassoon" playing among the "casement jessamine" in his poem, Come into the Garden Maud, while I read your well written posts here. Your depiction of a lake (moonlit?) around which evening scents of moonflower, jasmine and almond wafted carried me away from this February night for a while.

Thank you for this thread,
Tennyson's poem - https://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/...

We need to hear more from southern gardeners about their fragrant southern gardens - anyone like to do it? When I was a kid in the 50s, a magnolia planted by my granddad around the turn of the 20th century had literally become as big as several houses in a grassed roundel about which horse driven carriages would have traveled to the front door. We were just visiting, so were never there to get a whiff of that tree's blossoms. A hurricane brought the tree down not long after our visit - not to mention blowing away chicken houses.

I started a night scent garden last year. One favorite, grown from seed: Night Phlox. Perfume like vanilla or almond cake. Very strong and not cloying. The 'Pearl' tuberoses were great, so were the Melancholy Gillyflowers [stocks]. Fragrant white begonia was lovely but no night perfume. I potted up jasmine and a gardenia bred for this Zone 9 climate overwintering, hoping for first blooms. None of it was really timed together, but the kahili ginger took over in September.

My Night Blooming Jasmine is my all time favorite smell.




Anyone have propagating tips?

You are so lucky. I can almost smell your garden from reading the post.

OrganicCavalry said:My Night Blooming Jasmine is my all time favorite smell.




Anyone have propagating tips?

Super easy to take cuttings and put them in dirt. Dip the ends in some root tone.