The Scent of Mignonette, and Others

Reseda odorata

I bought a pack of mignonette seeds (Reseda odorata) several years ago, hoping to experience the flower's famous scent in my front yard, after having read about it for many years in various nineteenth century novels. I sowed it in several places in my front yard, and while the seeds germinated readily, the seedlings were quickly  mowed over by slugs and snails.  It was with excitement that I discovered two surviving plants that began to grow and flower next to the 'Tour de Malakoff' rose.  But then nothing.  When I put my nose as close as possible to the flowers (often covered with bees, as above), I couldn't smell much other than cedar mulch.  I was heartened to come across this passage from The Well Tempered Gardener by Christopher Lloyd:

I always have odd plants of mignonette scattered about the garden at strategic points and sometimes grow a few in pots, which I can move around.  "Does mignonette ever smell like it used to?" I was asked rather querulously by one elderly visitor, as though the Bomb, the cost of living and a Labour government must between them have put an end to all such pleasures.  Well, it does; but you never quite know when.  Sometimes its spicy fragrance reaches you most powerfully by night; at others, when the sun is on the flowers.  All you can do is to wait for it, because nothing comes of sticking your face in the plant.  

Rhododendron 'Countess of Haddington' (R. ciliatum x R. dalhousiae), emerging from the dark of winter.

Geranium maderense 'Alba', getting ready to bloom, then die.

Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Mariesii', just beginning to wake up for Spring.

Magnolia sprengeri var. diva 'Eric Savill'.  It's good news to see this leaf developing, because this tree has been very slow to get established in my yard, with most of the leaves falling off mid-summer last year.

Cistus x purpureus.  Another plant I thought I killed last summer, but that is now coming back to life.  I like how the petals look like crumpled paper.

Ipheion 'Rolf Fiedler'

Ercilla volubilis.  I posted a picture a couple weeks ago of the buds of this plant, which look like a tiny bunch of brown grapes.  Here is what it looks like when it begins to flower.

After the initial difficulties, the mignonette has happily naturalized in my front yard.  And every once in a while, I do smell a strong fragrance wafting from somewhere.

At the center is Alstroemeria psittacina.  I bought this plant several years ago, and every spring, it sends up small shoots as pictured above, which then disappear without having done much else.  A fellow rider in the pot with the Alstroemeria was an unidentified weed, which turned out to be the violet now surrounding it and throwing up these striking purple flowers.    

A hummingbird has built a nest in the decrepit light fixture underneath my back porch.