Who Doesn't Like Spring Flowers?

Wow! I am so happy with my endeavor to create a Spring Garden! Last's years hard work and obsessive vision paid off. Last post, I presented some of the white daffodils that I had planted and today we flirt with my modest lilac collection. Look at "Sensation" above- who knew that there was a
variegated lilac; the detail of a perfect white line around each floret is remarkable. (I got this plant at the local plant sale last year for a song! I can't wait for this year's sale on Saturday... who knows what I'll find.)
And look at "Pocahontas":

(Yes, that Lil' Robin photobombing my lilac shoot!) This picture doesn't do justice to the multitude of large blooms in a simply super deep purple-y purple. And it smells incredible!(This variety is courtesy of Beatrice and John for my birthday last year. Yay! Good job!) Here's a close up:

I can smell it from here! I keep making trips outside just to walk around and visit my lilacs. And look! "Primrose" bloomed, despite being a very small plant, only about a foot and a half tall.

Yeah, it looks white to me, too, but it's marketed as yellow. But several Internet sites assure me it "matures" to a very pale creamy yellow (probably just as the petals turn brown and fall off). But who cares! I like white lilacs and it looks great.
I have yet to really clean up all of last fall's leaves or do a early weeding- the one down side of a spring garden is the denizens start performing before I'm ready!- but between the lilacs, daffodils and the underplanting of vinca, there's quite a show. And there are several nice wild volunteers for additional color. A few small patches of wild anemones and geraniums flowered, adding an unexpected, delicate splash of color below. Next year it should be even better, as some of my other lilacs will be more mature and (hopefully) bloom. And I'm looking to add "Monge" and "Charles Joly" and more white daffodils...

*I must make mention here that this blog is about flowers because if it wasn't, it would either be about The Orange Menace and the insanity and havoc he is wreaking (This week? Pulling out of Iran Nuclear deal, opening embassy in Jerusalem etc etc) or the perfidy of "the art world". Don't get me going... aren't flowers nicer!?!!?!??!

What's That Smell Like Meat, Oh Baby?

Scent is a very personal matter. What smells just great to one individual can be less than appealing to another. This is most often proven while standing behind an overly cologne saturated individual in a supermarket checkout line (or any instance where escape is impossible). I feel the urge to gag, but you know the wearer of the offending scent is sure they're attracting all the bees.

I bring this up because the flower here illustrated is a good case in point. I was taking Robin out the other evening, and I was assailed by the odor of rotting meat... a sweet, cloying definitely meat-like smell. I suspected a dead mouse in the wall until I realized I was smelling the Brugmansia!

Once I identified the smell as emanating from the flower, it was reassigned to the section of my brain that registers "things that are supposed to smell good", and I guess it does if you like decaying meat. The better to attract pollinators like bats and flies! (It's a smell reminiscent of jasmine, which I'm also not drawn to; I prefer clean, "high note" florals like phlox. I love the smell of phlox!: like clean laundry and sunshine).
This particular flower is trying hard to establish itself in my good graces. It was a generous gift from our good friend John Trainor- even though I warned him that I have no luck with Daturas and Brugmansias. And true to form, this plant struggled all season, not growing much in the direction of verticality and seeming to strain to produce a few new leaves. (And as soon as a new one appeared, an older one fell off; sort of a zero sum leaf gain). By the end of the summer, it was (embarrassingly) barely larger than it had been when presented to me and I decided to compost it. But on it's way to the compost pile, it revealed that it was producing a flower bud.

So I brought it inside and it bloomed! And then it produced a second out-size bloom, as documented here. It's obviously enjoyed the move indoors and as it's December and there's nothing else blooming, it's gotten a reprieve. And it does emit that weird smell...