The aroma of dombeya blossoms, with a scent reminiscent of hot, buttered popcorn, may transport a gardener to a long-ago afternoon in the movie theater.
Select parts of the garden with some shade to cultivate the heady scent of gardenias. A floating gardenia makes a nice addition to any table.
The flowering pandorea vine does double sensory duty in the garden: It brightens a fence and spikes the air with fragrance.
It's funny the way the whiff of a scent can transport our senses to another time and place: that orchid corsage on prom night or jasmine in the old school playground.
If your yard is an olfactory desert, replace anonymous green bushes and filler plants with some of the richly perfumed perennials and shrubs that thrive in Central and South Florida. Use them as the bones of your garden and, in time, your landscape will evolve into a symphony of scents.
Use chain link fences as trellises and clothe them in the aromatic abundance of flowering vines such as pandorea, blue passionflower, Confederate jasmine or stephanotis. Many old-fashioned climbing roses will thrive here if they are purchased as "own-root" plants (plants rooted from their own cuttings) and grown in fertile, mulched soil without pesticides.
Need a privacy hedge that also works as potpourri? Try planting a Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow or Brunsfelsia, a Night-Blooming Jessamine or an Orange Jessamine every 3 feet. If you prefer roses, China and tea roses such as Cramoisi Superieur (red) or Ducher (white) or "Mme. Berkeley' (apricot and gold) and "Mrs. B.R. Cant' (pink). Make sure the tea roses are from own-root plants, and not hybrid tea roses.
If the area is slightly shaded, fill the air and your memories with gardenia varieties such as Belmont and Miami Supreme. Try floating one gardenia or rose bloom in a champagne glass on the breakfast table, for instant class with your instant oatmeal.
Need a big hedge or a powerful focal point that will be the talk of the block? Plant a pink dombeya, give it a space 15 by 15 feet, and each holiday season everyone will be charmed by pendulous, hydrangealike clusters that smell hauntingly like old-fashioned buttered popcorn, but a touch sweeter.
Got a low wet spot that's lightly shaded? The Butterfly Ginger produces a tropical thicket 6 to 8 feet, topped with white jasmine-scented blooms 3 inches across that resemble orchids. They seem to glow on a moonlit evening as their fragrance drifts on the air.
Got an area where everything dies? Buy a packet of Four O'Clocks (Mirabilis) seeds and in a few months you will have flowers in yellows and magentas and, at dusk, a rich perfume. They form persistent underground tubers, plus they drop seeds that sprout quickly. In good soil they can get out of hand, but they are perfect for a death valley.
Need a spiny security hedge to keep out intruders and capture the essential scent of Florida? Buy own-root plants of key lime and calamondin and plant them 5 feet apart; once they start to grow, prune them into a dense hedge that annually fills your yard with that irresistible citrus-blossom fragrance. And later there's the bonus of tart fruits for marmalades, lemonades and enhancements to Mexican beers.
Someday you'll be able to sit back and smell wonderful memories that add to the scrapbook of your heart.
- John A. Starnes Jr., born in Key West, is an avid organic gardener and rosarian who studies, collects, cultivates and hybridizes roses for Florida. He can be reached at JohnAStarnes@aol.com
