The Sweet Fragrances of Autumn

Fragrances fill my life with pleasure.  Nothing brings back old memories and nostalgia to me like a smell from my childhood.  Fall is one of the best times of the year for fragrance.  Houses are filled with the aroma of pumpkin, apple, and the spices that go with them.  Yards are filled with the perfume of flowers of many types.  

One of my favorite Autumn flowers is the Butterfly Ginger (hedychium.)  This sister of the canna just isn't grown in enough places.  It thrives all over the South and is so easy that it should be in every yard.  The gardenia-like fragrance permeates a yard like nothing else. They bloom from late summer all the way till frost.  Then they come back again next year and spread even more.  Such an easy pass-along plant that you can give plenty away by the second year.

However, my absolute favorite fragrance of the fall comes from the delectable Sweet Olive (osmanthus fragrans.)  This one is dear to my heart because it was a staple in my grandmother's yard and in my mother's yard.  My memory is stoked every time I get a whiff of the distinctive aroma of this shrub.  The shrub itself is a nice evergreen plant that gets the size of a small tree.  The flowers are barely noticeable.  But from mid-fall through spring the fragrance wafts through the cool air of any yard where the shrub is planted.  I think a hedge of this plant would be a delight.  Give your own children and grandchildren another aroma to bring them good memories in the future.

Sweet Olive!

This diminutive shrub is not much to look at.  It does have a pleasant shape and is evergreen where I live, but there's nothing especially noteworthy about its looks.  It can make a nice hedge, but is a slow grower.  It will eventually get 15-20 feet tall.

The flowers are also hardly noteworthy.  You don't even see them unless you get up close and personal.  They're just not much to see.

What makes this plant so wonderfully worthy is that these small clusters of flowers will intoxicate you with their delectable fragrance.  The smell will waft through an entire yard.  People will burst through your door demanding to know where and what that sweet smell is coming from.  This fragrance is one of my favorite in the entire world.  My grandmother and my mom both had/have these in their yards and I remember the smell from earliest childhood.  This plant is somewhat tender to cold weather and might not make it well north of about zone 7b.  Otherwise, plant it in loamy soil in part shade or full sun.  It blooms fall through spring for me.  You've got to have this plant if you live where it can grow.  Imagine what a whole hedge of these would smell like!

Still Going to the Dogs

I'm still sitting inside during these dog days planning out my fall gardening strategy.  In this last installment of this series, I'm showing what shrubs and trees I want to plant in the yard.

 

The above picture shows one of my all time favorite shrubs.  It's evergreen, gets about 15' tall, and wafts fragrance all over a yard during the fall, winter, and spring.  It's the Osmanthus fragrans ("Sweet olive.")  I've already got one of these in the front yard, but I'm thinking about putting a row of them along my back fence as an evergreen privacy hedge.  They are fairly slow growers, but eventually fill out - and that fragrance!

Another plan of mine involves putting some Encore azaleas in between the sweet olives in my new hedge.  Autumn Moonlight and Autumn Angel are the two I'm considering.  They are both white blooming azaleas.  The above Encore is my Autumn Twist.  Encores take sun much better than regular azaleas, plus they bloom up to three times per year.  I've always wanted some white ones in my yard, so the above choices would fit the bill perfectly. 

Two flowering shrubs/trees that I've been wanting are Eastern redbuds and Innocence mock orange.  Red buds have been one of my favorite flowering trees since I was a child and saw the one blooming in my grandma's yard.  Mock oranges are another of those fragrant blooming shrubs that are great for an understory planting beneath large trees.  I'm thinking of planting a small grove of redbeds in my back yard.  The mock orange would compliment the area too.  Innocence is a variety known to have strong fragrance.  I may also plant a Korean Spice viburnum to add to my collection of fragrant shrubs.

Spiderwort and more

What is this dimunitive little flower growing all over my yard every spring? It's tradescantia, otherwise known as spiderwort. It grows wild here in my part of Louisiana. It's cute and springy, so I try to mow around them till they are finished.

My purple bearded irises are going crazy again this year. I don't know what kind this is, they are just the old-fashioned purple ones and they are very fragrant. Jo has a bouquet in the kitchen right now that is smelling up the whole house. I've been told that other types of bearded irises don't do well here, but I'm thinking about trying some out just to see.

Why would I put a picture of such a boring little flower shrub? Well, this is a sweet tea olive or osmanthus fragrans (we call them sweet olives) and it's fragrance will fill an entire yard. It gets tall and full and it is evergreen. My mom has 3 huge ones that you can smell as soon as you get out of your car at her house. Everybody in the South should have at least one of these! I think they would make a good hedge too. Want another good reason to have them? Well, they bloom nearly all year, though late winter/early spring seems to be the best time. Don't try them if you live north of Arkansas because they can't take the cold.