Flowers and Scents: New Orleans style

We are in Magnolia Season down here.

You learn quickly in New Orleans that there are a lot more seasons than just Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. There is Mardi Gras or Carnival season. There is Festival season. There is Hurricane Season. And I’m going to throw out that if you have a functioning olfactory system and are out and about in the neighborhoods regularly, say - walking your dog - then you will know that there are also unique and identifiable smells that accompany the flowering of trees and plants that grace many of the homes here. They have their own seasons.

There is Sweet Olive season which luckily comes twice a year when the flowering tree or shrub puts out its small but fragrant white flowers. The scent is hard to explain but it is my favorite so I’m glad it’s on repeat. Second favorite is Jasmine Season. We have a wall of it in our back yard (see picture) and it smells heavenly but lasts only a week or two. Gardenias seem to come next and they are simply intoxicating but not as numerous. You have to scout them out and then plan your walks according to your neighbors landscape choices to catch them. Then Magnolia Season. Also intoxicating but messy and shady, these trees and their blooms may be the most associated with the South. Our home came with two in the front yard. They had been struck by lightning and possibly termites and so effective, were they, at throwing shade, no grass would grow in front of the house. We had to petition the city to take them down because you just don’t cut Magnolias around here. It’s seriously a rule.

The fact that I’m writing about flowers and plants makes me laugh and accept the fact that I am, after all, my mother’s daughter. She always told me to stop and smell the flowers. She meant it literally. If only she were still here to see that, decades later, I’m finally taking her advice.