TheBanyanTree: A Bona Fide Treat for the Olfactories

[B Drummond]

This past April was one of the coldest we've ever had.  

That cold looked to decimate many of the plants that had already budded or 
flowered in late March or early April.  

Slowly but surely most of the plants that were stung hard by the later than 
normal cold weather have started to recover.  

And among them are our gardenias.

They're set to burst forth in the next few days.  Bulbous appendages are 
popping up on the ends of many of the stems and this morning I noticed a 
single flower on one of the three gardenias in the front yard.

In the next few days, with much anticipation, I expect to see whole bushes 
full of white flowers that will emit some of the sweetest odors ever inhaled.  

They have always been ostentatious harbingers of summer heat and, again in 
late August or early September, sentinels of approaching shorter autumn days 
and much welcomed dusktime breezes. 

It's been good to watch them conquer the cold with such aplomb.



-- 
bd