Glorious Ghosts

So many fragrant plants, so little time to grow them! I specially like the unusual ones, the ones we don't immediately think of when we look for fragrance in the garden. Roses, lilac, freesias all come immediately to mind, but others like pansies and snowdrops are more subtle, needing to be sought out by the gardener. Others though pour out their scents at night, sending us out to look for the source of that heavenly perfume. Here are a few (as many as Blogspot will tolerate in one post) from my garden -- I call them ghosts because it isn't obvious where the scent originates.

First one is edgeworthia chrysantha, a relative of daphne, and the source of magical perfume in the cold spring garden.


Next (I hope) is fringe tree (chionanthus virginiana), a Virginia native, which is blooming now and pumping out its heavenly perfume all over my neighbourhood.


And third (if I have any luck at all today) is white ginger (hedychium), a tropical relative of culinary ginger, which lives in a pot in the basement all winter and in fall, produces these graceful white flowers which smell like a very loud honeysuckle.

Since Blogspot doesn't seem to like too many pictures in one post, I will continue this in another post with some of the other lovelies in my garden.