Spring has Sprung Jasmine-liciously in Miami

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My gigantic plant of Jasmine sambac Duke of Tuscany is starting to bloom. This sambac is slow growing and has huge - for jasmine huge I should qualify - flowers about the size of a tiny carnation, full of tightly-packed petals and the most tender non-indolic jasmine scent ever. I just adore it! I just plucked the first blossom of the season from it today, and left one on for the birds and lizards to enjoy ;-) It's full of about-to-open buds, and I hope I have some to bring to the lunch tomorrow of the Miami NP crew so they can enjoy it.

I coined the organoleptic term "tender" and I have to add that to the Aromatic Lexicon on the evaluation sheet my students use. So many of the home-grown jasmines I have become "tender" upon tincturing. Sigh. They're just so lovely, tender, powdery, soft, sweet and delicious.

April and May are the big jasmine blooming months here in Miami, not August and September as they are in India and France. Don't know the reason for that switch in blooming season, but it is what I have observed over years of growing the eight varieties of jasmine on my property. Some vines are much more floriferous than the others, and keep blooming right through summer, like the J. azoricum. My vines have grown tremendously since last year, with no fertilizer. I'm looking forward to a bumper crop of tinctures - it's very exciting!

Comments

  1. Anonymous3/23/2008 12:38 PM

    The flower on the image was too beautiful. I like its color as it shows peace and cleanliness for me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Perfumeshrine3/24/2008 9:58 AM

    Jasmine sambac is really so lush, so full, so wonderful.....*sigh*
    Love it and you seem to grow it magically (so big!!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnyasGardenPerfumes3/24/2008 10:28 AM

    Florist - the Sambac variety shown here, the Grand Duke of Tuscany is the cleanest smelling jasmine. It is fruity, innocent and achingly sweet and lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnyasGardenPerfumes3/24/2008 10:29 AM

    Dear Helg:
    Here is a picture of me holding one of the Grand Duke blossoms: http://naturalperfumery.com/evolution1.htm
    It is the biggest of all the jasmine flowers, with hundreds of tightly-packed petals. I harvested over a dozen this morning from my huge bush. I'm a very happy woman!

    ReplyDelete

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