Anyone else smitten with the smell of hyacinths?
I like to plant them near the front door do the fragrance floats into the house. They were bowed by last night's cold, but hopefully they'll bounce back.
Ours seem to have weathered the cold okay, though I was worried as well.
I actually HATE the smell. Smells like air freshener to me, and not in a good way. OTOH, we put magnolias adjacent to our deck and I love that, as well as the scent of jasmine and morning glory.
That's funny, shh. I loathe the smell of artificial air scents, and I can see the hyacinth smell being overpowering to some. I don't like it once they start fading, which is when they go outside.
I don' think I realized that morning glories were fragrant, but I also love the smell of magnolia, jasmine (love jasmine tea!), lavender, lilac, honeysuckle, and probably others I'm not thinking of.
I think I made a mistake, honeysuckle, not morning glory! I'm not much of a flower person, though I also love the smell of lavender.
I can't smell hyancinths without thinking about Easter as a child. My parents would put one on the grave of my sister who passed away when she was a baby (SIDS). She died before I was born, but I always think of her when I see/smell one.
Well, morning glories sure are pretty, though.
Wisteria! Another one that makes me stop and bask in its fragrance.
I think of my grandmother's back yard when the hyacinths are in the stores. My daughter bought 3 potted hyacinths at Shop Rite. Her room smells heavenly. Neither of us like most sprays or perfumes or incense.
Scent memories are very powerful. I can conjure the smell of my grandmother's cooking wafting down the hall of her apartment building when I was growing up just by thinking about it.
I think it is because the olfactory nerve is so close to the brain and limbic system which is why we are easily triggered to emotional memories. The limbic system is kind of the seat of emotions.
Petunias actually have a nice scent when in bunches. Rockport. MA uses petunias to create a love scent throughout their downtown area all summer.
Love this thread, such fine memories for me too, regarding hyacinths. When I was in the fifth grade, which was a very long time ago I was on bedrest because I had Mononucleosis. My mom made sure I didn't get up and run around. One day my dad showed at home up in the middle for the day with a beautiful pot of hyacinths, I had never seen them before and the smell was devine in my room. My dad passed in 2005, and I can't I see or smell hyacinths without bringing back the fond memory of my dad.
I still remember the scent of a lilac (tree-sized!) outside my window from the house we rented senior year. One of our neighbors in Maplewood had honeysuckle - never found out who, exactly - because we could smell it while out on our back deck.
gerryl said:
I think it is because the olfactory nerve is so close to the brain and limbic system which is why we are easily triggered to emotional memories. The limbic system is kind of the seat of emotions.
Well, apparently just reading about smells brings back the memories! I figured this thread would just make like-minded people wax poetic about hyacinths, but indeed it has touched an emotional nerve.
I don't have any memory about these flowers - we almost never had flowers in our apartment growing up - but I did buy my mother a pot of petunias each year at the Mother's Day flower sale at school, and we kept them on the kitchen window sill until they died. One pot alone didn't seem particularly fragrant, but I still love the flounciness of petunias.
I used to love the smell of hyacinths and had a spring bulb garden right outside my living room windows in one house many years ago. Suddenly I started getting very sick and eventually figured out I had gotten an allergy to hyacinths, most lilies, lilacs and -- basil! They must all be part of some botanical group because my throat literally closes and it feels like a knife is sticking in my head. And of course, there was always someone in my life who didn't remember my allergies and would bring me these flowers as gifts -- and I'd have to put them outside waaaaay out in the back.
I've always loved the scent of hyacinth and have them planted in our garden - in the house, the smell can be a bit cloying, but outside it is lovely. My mother loved lilacs, and I would bring her big bunches of them every year when ours bloomed. She's passed on, but the scent of lilacs always reminds me of her and how much she enjoyed them.
I swear they make me swoon, and I was once again seduced into buying a pot of the gorgeous purple ones from Trader Joe's for $5. Once they start fading, they'll go into the ground for next year to add to my growing collection.