Citrus give a most gorgeous scent to a house

By John Warrington

Here in Guyana we enjoy occasional periods where the weather is chronically dry with only the occasional drop of rain. Hardly enough to make any significant difference to the water table level. Yet all of us still have to keep a careful watch on our plants whatever the weather conditions. We have to plan for sowing and plant propagation whatever the weather might be, and of all the work that the gardener has to do, the acquisition and the propagation of the collection is about the most interesting work. This is helped by our unquenchable determination to grow things in spite of everything of our climate can throw at us, whether it be prolonged dry spells, or weeks of torrential rains.

Last week I mentioned briefly ‘space sowing’ and the sowing of tiny seed. I will mention briefly this week the selection of plants for the garden, which are chosen particularly for their scent – either of their flowers or their leaves, or even when being cooked.

I have quite a few scented plants used for all of these purposes, but it is not a large collection. My own collection comprises scented shrubs for the night and day as well as for cooking. It includes the evocatively named Lady of the Night (Cestrum nocturnum), the night flowering cactus (Cereus peruvianum) one of many night-flowering cacti that  become heavily scented during the night because of pollination by moths. I have a few night-flowering jasmines, also a Gardenia, which is heavily scented both day and night and the Rangoon Creeper, which has an overpowering scent in the early evening and in the morning.