There's always an embarassment of riches indoors this time of year....but we want spring outdoors now!

Phalaenopsis, Clivia, forced Hyacinths, Paperwhite Narcissus...even the tropical Hibiscus in the south window is squeezing out a few flowers. Species orchids, the big Adenium obesum, overwintering Geraniums....they're all flowering now. If all this floral largess could only have come a month ago. I want spring outside now. Still, in the face of this recent cold spell, its good to have the tropicals flowering.

The curious giraffe type Phalaenopsis came from Parkside Orchids at the Philadelphia Flower Show a few years ago. I bought it as a seedling sans flowers or buds and it finally flowered last year. Now there is a flood of "blotchy" Phaels. I like the white ones with huge purple spots but will probably not indulge.

It is interesting how orchids appear in the marketplace. There is sort of a background "white noise" of regular cultivars that evolves as the years pass, with new ones coming and old ones slipping away. But there's another phenomena that overlays this and provides a constant flow of interesting new cultivars. Somebody decides to grow an entirely different species that isn't really in cultivation, or a unique cultivar that hasn't been around for a while; they grow a number of flasks. The flasks mature, the seedlings are distributed, and for a while you see the new plant everywhere. They have the cachet of unfamiliarity, and enter the mainstream sometimes for a few years, sometimes for longer depending on their virtues and our tastes. Then someone offers us a different choice and we usually jump at it. We are a fickle bunch.

Lonicera fragrantissima....and it is very fragrant

This is a big picture of a little flower. When you put a sufficient number of them together (like a plantful), you magnify a magnificent fragrance enough to perfume an entire garden. And if you tell me it smells like Fruit-Loops, I won't smack you because I'm past all that, but you're wrong. And you're being gratuitously insulting; this plant evolved millenia before Fruit-Loops were invented so, if anything, Fruit-Loops smells like Fragrant Honeysuckle.

The shrub itself is fairly unimpressive in appearance; actually it's ugly. It takes the same form as the other bush honeysuckles that are dangerously invasive. Karen, my wife, has discovered an interesting way of keeping this plant in bounds; she has turned it into a standard. I wouldn't have though it possible, after all, left to its own devices, it becomes a very large arching, mushroom-shaped monstrosity. We have been able to keep ours to a single stem for at least 10 years. I prune masses of suckers from its base and branches from farther up every year so it doesn't become top-heavy enough to uproot itself, and so far it has worked. It's worth the effort becase the fragrance is....well, it's nice.

Every year is different, but in the chronology of winter-flowering fragrant shrubs, this normally fits in between Prunus mume (yes, technically a small tree) and the early fragrant Viburnums. Since it is basically a big weedy shrub, with a heavenly fragrance, I often put it in large scale designs; it's almost an automatic for Schools or Churches. I am not sure its fragrance is as nice as its vining cousin, Japanese Honeysuckle, but since it doesn't seem to seed, it is unquestionably the surest and the best fragrance for your dollar!