Anya's Garden Perfumes + The Natural Perfumery Institute

Good morning, dear friends!  I started drinking high-octane coffee again this week, and I'm wired and have already been very productive this not-very-hot-or-humid morning in Miami.  My front garden is a floral wonderland today, and I'm sharing my photos with you.  I hope they inspire you to grow your own fragrant botanicals, whether you harvest them to scent extraction or not.   I'll be here today, working on my hush-hush new fragrant product, so I'll be answering your natural perfumery questions. Gold Champaca Greeting me at my front door - a vigorous Jasmine grandiflorum plant Not scented in the morning - night-blooming jasmine A closeup of the pretty little nightblooming jasmine flowers Tahitian gardenia - yes, the one Monoi is made from My ylang ylang tree is loaded with blooms A harvest basket before 9 a.m. Wonderful work if you can get it!

Tahitian gardenia in Anya's Garden My Tahitian gardenia plant is flowering like crazy!  It's in its second year and really taking off.  I just got two tiny Tahitian gardenia *double* flowering plants that will be in the ground soon. I'll be here until 10 PM ET tonight for any perfuming questions you have.  Stay cool - it's going to be way over 90F here today (Tahitian gardenia weather).

All gardenias are not the same. Modern natural perfumery has a growing selection of raw materials from different species and varieties of gardenia to choose from, and we're all the better because of it. This image typifies the gardenia perfume fragrance we all want: lush, sensual, wanton, spicy, buttery, floral, intoxicating, over-the-top and proud of it. The creamy, green, almost-obnoxious scent of the full-blown gardenia that is common in gardens, the cultivated Gardenia jasminoides aka Gardenia augusta: Gardenia jasminoides aka Gardenia augusta In the early-to-mid part of the 20th century, there were a few who produced gardenia absolute form the G. jasminoides/augusta. Story has it that the advent of World War II and the discovery of synthetic aromachemicals that mimicked the scent of gardenia put an end to the natural gardenia absolute. In the early 21st century, with the rise of natural perfumery, the demand for a gardenia absolute arose again. I am enfleuraging gardenias, and...