I missed Valentine’s Day. My poor husband. Sure, my road-weary self was present for our traditional cheese fondue dinner with romantic candlelight and well… cheese. But I’m afraid my recent schedule of travel, speaking, board meetings, and deadlines has left me an empty shell of a human. Breathing and functioning (well, sort of) but hardly present or interacting.
See what I mean – would you want this sad sack across the couch cushions from you on a dreary, rainy February 14th? Yeah–my poor husband.
But the sun is out and shining. Our winter has been a non-event. (Apologies to readers back East… or in the Midwest… or the Deep South… or) My garden is a full month ahead of itself with shrubs, vines, bulbs and perennials blooming their fool heads off. The color and fragrance are literally lifting me out of my funk on a fragrant waft of sweet perfume.
powerfully fragrant, winter-blooming Daphne odora
Dear husband clipped a tiny posy of Daphne odora, popped it one of my very favorite and sentimental vases, and placed it at my bedside where it’s heady, some say overpowering, scent filled the ether of our bedroom before carrying me off to much welcomed sleep. Scent is powerful stuff.
Fragrance is said to be the most direct link between our senses and that part of our brain that encapsulates memory. Personal association and past experience build our memory bank of scent. It’s a crying shame that as we age, our sense of smell diminishes. Perhaps it’s an evolutionary parting gift that it lingers in our recall to be called forth with an unexpected whiff.
The above is an excerpt from this month’s Out in the Yard column which I write for Angie’s List Magazine. The piece is about my somewhat lackluster experience with hardy gardenias. Yes, you read that right – Gardenias, in the PNW. I’m on a constant quest for fragrance in the garden throughout the year; I didn’t say it was rational. That is until I met this horticultural Valentine:
photo courtesy of Gardener's Confidence Collection
Heaven Scent gardenia, a floriferous and hardy compact form touted for its fabulously fragrant flowers, was a 2009 introduction in the Gardener’s Confidence Collection. I received a small sample plant in the autumn of 2008. Call me a scorned cynic, but I was skeptical of my chances. The little 4-inch plant spent the winter completely exposed on my potting bench through a record snow storm and temperatures that fell to 15 degrees.
You can read the rest of the article here or here to find out how my budding relationship with Heaven Scent turns out. In the meantime, a very belated but still heartfelt Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone.
