Pretty Smells

By Stephanie
It is easy to understand why the blooms of Strophanthus preussii are called medusa flowers. They have long appendages that can look pretty scarry at times. When wind blows really hard, they tend to tangle up, hehe...

I like to see the climber flowering in great profusion so that I could see some older flowers in pale yellow and the newer ones in white altogether at one time.

Do you grow this medusa flower? Do you find the scent strong too? On several occasions, I sniffed a really strong fragrance coming from this patch and wondered if it could be from these flowers. 


Shortly after that, my Gardenia jasminoides (right species name?) made its debut in my garden with this big bloom... yay :-D  I think this bloom is even bigger than the bloom that came with the plant when I purchased it last year. The scent was really strong but sweet at the same time. 

Smelling and watching the gardenia blossom from bud to flower made me forget all the time and effort that had went into growing it. 


The gardenia flower however wilted fast due to the heavy rain and strong sun. So were its neighbour, the Thunbergia laurifolia blooms that fell to the ground or to the pots below...


Below is another pic of the blooms... the laurel-leaved thunbergia bears the largest flower, next is the gardenia and the smallest bloom is the medusa flower. 

I mentioned about my aloe's yellowing leaves in an earlier post, you can see more of them here as well. 

The bush in the foreground is Portulacaria afra. It is commonly known as a dwarf jade plant.


Have a great day!