The smell of disappointment

This is a picture of  one of my night scented stock, Matthiola longipetala. It is a ratty little weedy looking thing, which is okay. It is supposed to look like that. But those white flowers that open up every evening are supposed to be incredibly fragrant. Only mine aren't. I planted them in a little nook next to the porch so they could perfume summer evenings, but though the flowers open every evening, they have no scent to speak of. If I get down on my knees and shove my nose into them, I can just barely smell them -- but that is all! I'm so sad. Do mine just not smell? Can I just not smell them? Do they need something special in order to smell?

Beautiful Buffalo

If you read virtually any gardening blogs at all, you probably already know that this past weekend some 70 of us were in Buffalo having the time of our lives. Given the already wall-to-wall coverage, I'll just add a few of my favorite photos, a HUGE thank you to our incredible hosts and organizers Jim and Elizabeth for putting together a practically perfect few days.

Pink Poppies

These were supposed to be a mix of all different colors and forms of Papaver somniferum, but they've turned out to all be this pink. I'm slightly disappointed, but it is a lovely shade of pink. Especially when back-lit by the rising sun:

In their native habitat, I believe these are pollinated by beetles (I've heard it hypothesized that the dark spots at the base of many poppy flowers mimic the appearance of a beetle in the flower, so male beetles will visit in hopes of it being a female -- though I've not seen any research actually demonstrating that.) But here the hover flies are all over them.

I doubt the hover flies do a very good job pollinating -- they seem to just hang out on the stamens eating pollen. But there sure are a lot of them. And hover flies are cool, so I'm glad they're getting a good meal.