There are an awful lot of plants named Jasmine. They're all sweet-smelling and heady. In early spring, in February and March, the plant known as Jasminium officinale blooms here in Southern California. It has pinnate evergreen leaves and pretty little white star-like flowers that open from pink-tinged buds. This year, with our drought, the early Jasmine season was swift and fleeting, dried up and wilted away.
On my visit to New Orleans, my days and nights as Naomi and Louie's guest were filled with another heady jasmine scent, from a huge evergreen shrub in their back yard. This is Trachelospermum jasminoides, also known as the Confederate Jasmine, due to its tender nature, hardy only in the Southern States.
Today while walking through Santa Monica's Clover Park, I was surrounded by its familiar scent. Here it blooms as a sweet, evergreen ground cover to the trees. Sweet, sweet spring.
2 comments:
I've been smelling some wonderfully heady, sweet smells here that I cannot name. Slowly they are being replaced by the city's signature scent: lilacs!
Confederate Jasmine is one of the best things about living in the south! There are evenings when I can smell it from inside my house with all the doors and windows closed. Intoxicating!
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