My Flowering Happy Plant
Dracaena fragrans CV Massangeana,

The other night while walking through the back streets of Redfern, my friend and I were stopped in our tracks by a wall of sweet, natural, heady, flower perfume. We looked around, expecting to see a Murraya (I’ll talk about that later) but were amazed to see a few very tall “happy plants” with a mass of flower stalks emitting an entrancing pungent scent. It was a balmy quiet night, and we were blessed.

A day later I looked out my window into my atrium of happy plants to see 3 flowers. I was thrilled and amazed at the same time. Up until a day ago I never knew these plants flowered at all and now I was sleeping in a cocoon of scent. I lay under the mosquito net feeling like I lived in a tropical paradise. I’m only 10 minutes from the centre of Sydney. Lucky me! If only this could be distilled into an essential oil ……

Do you ever have those moments when you are blessed with something wonderful? Perhaps we need to be more open to the abundant nature of the universe so we can allow magic moments to happen more often. We tend to be quite narrowly focused – with mobile phones, computers and TV. They literally narrow our vision, and tend to narrow our other senses too. When it comes to scent I feel that we are so bombarded with synthetic scent it compromises our ability to attune to the scent of nature. I would take 1 single drop of essential oil over ANY perfume created in a lab with a marketing machine and a billion dollar company behind it. Nature is simple (in it’s complexity), and it codes the secrets of the universe in flowers, trees, crystals, the sand on a beach and the waves in the ocean.

Wake up! Open your senses, be stunned by the beauty of nature, and discover the reason for your existence!

The “Golden Ratio” is seen in the centre of this sunflower – it’s a code found throughout the universe

There are a few other flowers I love too, that are not distilled into essential oils for various reasons – the main one being that it’s not economically viable. Perhaps no one has put the energy into it, or they are seasonal and it’s hard to gain enough flowers at a given time, to distill.

the beautiful gardenia – Gardenia jasminoides

Aaaahhhh the divine gardenia. What a scent! Billie Holiday wore gardenias in her hair (see my article http://wp.me/p2R7rE-9l) and I do too, whenever I can. It’s the intoxicating scent of promise, the scent of spring and new beginnings. It is unique and hard to describe in words, but once you’ve smelt one you will never be the same again. If only it were an essential oil …..

Murraya paniculata – the flowers even look like jasmine

This is Murraya and some call it Orange Jessamine. It usually blooms early and late summer and has the depth of jasmine but with a particular hint of neroli (or orange blossom). Sometimes I’ll just stand near the flowering bush for a while to try and absorb the scent into my pores. Like jasmine and gardenia, it is pungent and emits its divine scent into the environment just because that’s its mission. I feel it’s my duty to pay homage to this beautiful entity, whether on paper and words, or when I stand by and deeply breathe it into my lungs. If only it were an essential oil……..

One of the magnolia flowers – this is the flower I see the most around Sydney

The magnolia tree is quite magnificent, even when it’s bare. The flower which blooms in late winter/early spring is soft, sweet and subtle. There are many species and sub species of magnolia and they all differ in look and scent. Some trees lose their leaves and other don’t. I love the bare magnolia tree – it makes us wait for the magic! I’m always thinking of the mauve/pink flower when I think magnolia. The colour and the scent go hand in hand and it is obvious to me that the flower is worth waiting for – it’s almost regal. It’s a bit hard to wear one of these flowers in your hair because they can be quite large, but to scent your space with magnolia is like giving thanks to Mother Earth through scented prayer. If only it was an essential oil……..

If only they were essential oils….