When I glanced outside early this morning it looked like we'd had a dusting of snow overnight. The paving was white and all the nearby plants were flecked with 'snowflakes'. Then, when I opened the back door and stepped outside the powerfully sweet (some would say sickly sweet) subtropical scent of murraya in bloom seized me by the nose.
It's not an alluring, classy gentle scent like a frangipani's – murraya has a cheap scent, too abundant and too strong. Yet it is one of the scents of summer here in Sydney, and this year's murraya flowering has been the best in many years. Everywhere I go around town right now these big, glossy green shrubs are covered with fragrant white blooms, and they're at their peak here at our place today.
The bush has been building up to this little avalanche of white petals for several days. This is a weekend cluster of buds straining to be set free – one of many. |
And this morning they've been allowed out. It'll all be over in a few days, which is a good thing, as the scent is very strong, but as I know it's here for just a couple of days I do enjoy it. |
This part of the murraya, above the pergola roof, gets more sun and so flowering is a bit better. |
I've blogged about these plants before, and I've mentioned previously that murrayas are one of those plants that are so successful and so popular that they are frowned upon by many a 'serious' Sydney gardener. As if being too easy to grow is a bad thing anywhere. Maybe it's that tacky cheap scent that's the turn-off? Fortunately for me I'm not all that serious about gardening, I just love it, and so there's a spot both in my garden and in my heart for these evergreen performers that can even produce a bit of snowy magic in summer.
5 comments:
I agree with your description: a "sweet (some would say sickly sweet) subtropical scent". And of course, the flowers smell strongest at night - especially the 'sickly' part of the scent. Arriving here for a weekend visit one recent evening, my stepson thought that the overpowering smell when he got out of his car was perhaps a malfunctioning septic system! The smell of murrayas at certain times in the flowers' life cycle does in fact sit on the fence between sweet and yukky. Like you, I love them. But I'm also pleased the flowering period is short.
Yes it is funny how suddenly every street is just full of these in full bloom. We have a couple of large trees, which look beautiful. However I have to agree with Chartreuse about the overwhelming aroma, especially on the balmy nights,we always joke that it is akin to sitting next to someone who has marinated in stale perfume! I know when daughter arrives for a visit this weekend she will start sneezing the minute she gets on our driveway...she finds it overwhelming, as well as the Jasmine aroma!
Whilst the Murraya hedges don't flower as such, I love them for the absolute speed with which you can establish a thick hardy hedge. In less than 18 months our new driveway was transformed.
Thank you for blogging about this - I've been stepping through drifts of murraya blooms all over Annandale for the past two days and wondering what they were. I love the scent, although I don't have to live with it. Yesterday I stopped out the front of another house on my street just to breathe it in for a few moments. Beautiful.
I had to laugh at this post because the Murrayas (or Mock Oranges as I've always called them) are flowering up here in Queensland too, and after all the wind we've been having the petals end up all over the place.
However I think they look less like snow and more like toenail clippings owing to the crescent shape. Not as lovely a picture to imagine as snow though, right?! ;)
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