Wanna share with you one of my favorite precious moments.

[dixiegrrrrl]

We are having warm temps down here in SW Ala, clouds are trying to make rain, humidity is 80+ per cent, I have a
window open next to me....
and the lovely rich scent of the Sweet Olive trees is coming thru the window.

My "must have" list when we were looking for a house included a Sweet Olive tree.

they bloom when they sense spring, so might be blooming several times before June.
They also bloom in the fall.

Right up there with the freesia, hyacinths, wall flowers, for scents that make ya swoon.

What else should be on that list....hmmmm.

[blaze]

1. Lilacs!!

We have a lot around town but they bloom sporadically. I think they are very sensitive to all the variables... temp/water/sunshine...

One year, we must have had the exact, perfect climate for them because I could smell them driving all over town!!!

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. YESSSSS....

very famous in Washington state.,.they need cold. Can't grow then down here. Maybe if our temps show some consistently cold, we could.
Also, another spring favorite in English type climates....primroses. again, cool weather

[Trailrider1951]

3. Gardenias! I used to have them in my yard when I lived in Houston

Nothing smells sweeter to my nose, except maybe roses

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. So many roses don't smell these days

Drives me nuts. They've developed all these hybrids that look beatiful but have little or no scent. A rose should smell like a rose!

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Luckily, lovely scented roses are available, you gotta know where to find them.

The tea roses which are so good for cutting, and beauty, also have some scented varieties. Online search for scented roses and/or scented tea roses will pull them up. A few classics such as Mr. Lincoln, the Peace Rose, Chrysler Imperial,
are popular for their scent.

The original scented roses go way back, there was a boom in rose breeding in the 1800s in England, and then over
here, which used a lot of wonderfully perfumed roses as a base.

If ya want to be stuck at your computer forever, wander thru the online catalog, or order the print one, of David Austin's Roses, who is internationally acclaimed for developing gorgeous roses.

OTOH there is now a rose that you can plant and forget about, it blooms a lot, has zero scent, but looks purty as you drive past the yards that have them. I think they are called "Forever" roses, but I be confusing it with a stamp....

[Control-Z]

5. I am not familiar with the scent of Sweet Olive trees

but I can almost imagine it with this beautiful OP. I have always had a heightened sense of smell. My memories and feelings are triggered by scents more than any other. I guess that's why this has moved me the way it has.

Thank you for sharing this precious moment with us.

[Laffy Kat]

6. I love the scent of Russian olive trees every spring...

Wonder if they're the same as your sweet olive?

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. I just looked that up.

They are different.
the russian Olive actually has fruits that look like olives, the Sweet Olive does not. The Sweet Olive is a 10-12 foot high shrub, the Rusian Olive is a very large tree. It was planted in the USA for erosion control and now is considered a major pest. It is also grayish while the sweet olive is shiny evergreen.

Closest thing to Sweet Olive is Mock Orange, which is well know in the NE of the country.

[Laffy Kat]

9. Oh, ok. Thanks for checking. I knew the Russian olive was an invasive species...

But they do smell splendid. The scent doesn't last very long, maybe a few weeks at most. It's a sure sign of spring when you get that first whiff of Russian olive.

[mia]

10. Night-blooming jasmine

A scent to delight on warm sumer nights in South Florida. I used to have one in my backyard. Thanks for the memory.