On our drive yesterday we passed several large shrubs and stopped to investigate.
This first one was obviously a wild rose. It had soft pink blossoms, the jaggedy edged leaves, and of course some nasty little thorns on the stems. It also was surprisingly fragrant. I say surprising, at least to me, because I didn't think a wild rose had such a strong scent. It was really nice and sweet.
The second shrub was just about all over in the canyon. It was covered with rose like flowers and I actually thought it was a wild white rose until we stopped and took a closer look.
The difference with this big bush is there are no thorns, and the leaves are a little different. When I took a whiff of these blossoms I was just about knocked over. So delicious! A very strong sweet scent that reminded me a lot of a freesia or gardenia or stock. I absolutely love it.
Though with the exception of the color, the blossoms look almost identical to the wild rose. When we got home we did a little on line research and the best we could come up with was the rose is a sweet briar and the extremely fragrant white bush is a western mock orange.
If you know any better or know anything of these plants please let me know!
Makes me want to plant a bunch all around the house!
3 comments:
I am sure their are varieties of the Mock Orange, but Gaga's mother "Nana" had them all over the Formal Garden, and as an adult I smelled them on a walk in Palo Alto, I had to ask what they were, the scent just took me back to my childhood, they smell amazing!! I bought one, but it never flowered? Just got HUGE?? Next time on your drive, grab some and 'start' them at home, and plant them up-wind of your home!
Patti
HAPPY 4th!!!
Of course, that is exactly what I'd recommend, plant all the native stuff that will grow in your area! Probably deer resistant, too.
Happy fourth!
mt
Just got some fun time on the computer to visit you and catch up on some of your archives...HOW exciting that you're loving your new place, exploring, seeing wild horses, and I can almost smell these beautiful wildflowers right through the screen! Did you find out what they are? I'd sure be taking some out to the homeplace :) Thank you for stopping in to wish us well on the purchase of our little palmetto-and-pine piece of land that will one day be our farm...YAYY for you guys and for us, too!! :)
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