Fragrance and Ferraria
Mary Sue Ittner (Wed, 24 Dec 2003 08:28:58 PST)

Dear All,

My garden is full of Freesia alba and for a long time each spring it is
absolutely wonderful to be out in the garden because it is so fragrant. A
lot of Babianas have a wonderful fragrance although you need to get very
close to smell them. And there are some Gladiolus that both times we were
in South Africa we could smell before we could see and were reluctant to
leave behind since they smelled so good (G. virescens and G. watermeyeri.)
These are similar in color and shape with different degrees of hoodedness
so perhaps there is some significance to that.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Gladiolus uysiae pictured there is supposed to be fragrant too (and looks
like G. virescens), but I don't remember smelling it. On the other hand G.
tristis is often mentioned as fragrant (in the evening) and the ones I have
smelled have not had much fragrance, but it could be I just can't smell them.

Hesperantha cucullata is nicely fragrant as it gets dark, but if you bring
it in a warm lighted room the fragrance diminishes.

As for Ferraria, the Ferraria I have grown for years as Ferraria uncinata
(from IBS seed) that I have donated corms and seeds to various groups
Julian Slade thinks is something else, maybe F. crispa. Ferraria crispa is
known for its unpleasant smell, but the Ferraria crispa I grow that was
once considered a subspecies (F. crispa nortierii) has no smell that I can
tell.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…
Maybe it is wrongly identified as well. I find the Ferraria key a
challenge, but the plant pictured blooms reliably for me and I am fond of it.

But to get back to my Ferraria uncinata, probably not, it smells like
vanilla to me. The flower is wonderfully weird and it blooms a long time,
but is definitely thug like in a raised bed so I have planted it in the
ground where it is doing fine. I love the way it smells and others who have
stuck their nose down there have never complained. So I am puzzled about
this. Jane has banished it for the smell. Keys never list smells. Here is a
picture of it:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…
So if you have seed or corms from me perhaps you need to put a question
mark next to it.

We saw a Ferraria in the Karoo Desert NBG on our trip that Julian thinks is
the real F. uncinata. I can't remember it smelling at all, but I didn't get
close to it. Our slides don't show it quite as blue as the digital camera
picture shows it.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Mary Sue