Bring Chocolate Scents into Your Home and Garden
June 12, 2015
No need to be baking constantly to enjoy the scent of chocolate this summer! There are a few species of plants that will fill your home, patio, or garden with the scent of chocolate. Plant a window container to allow the smell to waft in and comfort you, or set one on the porch to welcome friends and neighbors.
There are many plants with the common name including something like "chocolate scented", but don't be deceived by these. There are very few plants which actually smell like chocolate, and we'll divulge exactly which ones to use. Common names often suggest a chocolaty colored leaf, blooms, or markings, and don't actually smell of chocolate.
Here are several varieties of genuinely chocolate scented plants to spice up your garden this summer:
- The "Yellow Sweet Sultan", or Chocolate Centaurea, Moschata suaveolens, which is a member of the Aster family. It gives off yellow flowers that smell like chocolate, and grows to 24-36 inches high. This variety needs full sun and regular water. It is a hardy winter plant in Zone 8, or grow can be grown as an annual.
- The Chocolate Daisy or Chocolate-Scented Daisy, known formally as the Berlandiera Lyrata. It produces medium-sized, bright yellow daisies and chocolate-colored stamens. This plant is a night bloomer, so you'll enjoy the chocolate fragrance in the morning. It is a hardy perennial in Zones 4-11. This lovely plant will grow to about 18 inches tall, and is best in full sun or part shade, blooming Spring through Fall. As an added benefit, it is drought tolerant.
- Chocolate Cosmos, or Chocolate Astrosanguineus, which produces dark reddish-brown blooms, flowering mid-Summer through Fall. This plant is a perennial, and is hardy in Zones 7-10. It will grow to about 30 inches tall, and needs full sun and regular watering.
- Chocolate Vine, or Akebia Quinata, blooms in Spring with a fragrance like chocolate from its reddish-purple-brown flowers. Be very careful with this one, as it is very invasive if not properly tended to.
- There is also a mint variety which smells intensely of mint, and a little bit of chocolate. It's called Chocolate Mint, of course. It is a perennial in Zones 3-11, needs full sun to part shade, and moist soil. This plant is best grown it in a pot, and will spill prettily over the edge along with its white, lavender, or pink flowers.
In addition to these garden beauties, two house plants also have a genuinely chocolaty fragrance. First is Sharry Baby, which is an Onsidium Orchid. Then, Hoya Carnosa, which is commonly called a wax plant. The fragrance they give off is so strong, it will easily fill a room or entire house.
Source: MyrtleBeachOnline.com
Photo: " is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Cropped from original
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