Yesterday while mowing in the back near the wilderness garden, I was suddenly enveloped by a breeze driven cloud of sweet pleasant scent. Following the scent led me to this shrub alongside the lane. The source of the scent had been found. In the decade and one half that we have owned this land, this shrub has kept its delightful fragrance a secret from us. This is a busy time of year for us so perhaps we just missed the sweet blossoms. Our last frost this year was May 10th and that is uncommon here. Later frosts may have damaged flower buds making past blooms uncommon. We are pleased to have just discovered this sweet smelling bush.
A search of our books has failed to identify this shrub. Our fields are filling with a type of Japanese honeysuckle shrub that is likely an escape from past nursery trade. The mystery shrub shares some similarities with the honeysuckles but it also displays differences. Deep tubular heavily scented flowers are an obvious difference. Why knowing the name of a plant increases the pleasure derived from it is a bit of a mystery. It should be enough just to stand near these sweet flowers but we would like to identify this plant by name. Can anyone help?
3 comments:
Autumn olive, I think. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaeagnus_umbellata
Hi,Ed and Becky! I was curious about the identity of your blooming tree and directed our friend, Dave Sterling, retired biology prof, to your site. He thinks it may be an Autumn Olive but he can't see enough of the leaves to be positive! It s related to the Russian olive, a member of the Oleaster family. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the help!! You did a great job! We can be more sure when the bush has its fruits. Apparently the fruits are edible and juicy. Want to stop by later when they are ripe and take a bite?
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