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Boronia megastigma

Tim Dutton wrote:

>You are a lucky man David. Ever since I got interested in gardening, people
>have raved on about the scent of this Boronia and I have planted them in two
>gardens now. The problem is, I cannot smell it at all. I can stuff the
>flowers up my nose, but with all the will in the world cannot smell anything
>at all! As far as I know, there are no other scented plants that I am unable
>to smell, so I am sorry, I just don't believe Boronia megastigma has any
>scent, in spite of what everyone says :-)

Is this a south-of-the-equator phenomenon?  I know at least 3
Australians and another New Zealander who claim that Boronia
megastigma has little or no scent.  

Some years ago I had a nursery further north, in a place known here as
'The Midlands' .  It was far too cold to grow Boronia outside there,
but even if I brought a single, flowering plant into the main pot
plant sales house, everyone would ask about the fragrance and could
barely believe this it could emanate from so small and demure a plant.
That greenhouse was over 100 feet long by 50 ft wide and 15 feet high,
was jam-packed with pot plants and  yet a small bush of Brown Boronia,
no more than 2 feet high and across, could produce enough fragrance to
scent the whole structure.  

I used to enjoy the low murmurs of pleasure as people walked in - you
could hear them enter the door, take a deep breath and say "Ooh, what
a wonderful smell!".  I'm sure it encouraged them to buy in the same
way that the smell of fresh bread always makes you get that extra loaf
in the bakery.  Luckily, when the Brown Boronias finished, it was the
turn of Passiflora quadrangularis which would continue until late
winter.  Even one, open flower of the Passiflora was sufficient to do
the job.

David Poole
-- 
                        dave_poole@ilsham.demon.co.uk
                        http://www.ilsham.demon.co.uk        
                                      TORQUAY  UK
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