In 2009 I had the privilege of experiencing the scent of some lillies at HB Prison Medcial Unit where the staff had bought a colleague some flowers as a mark of their care and concern following a death.
I still remember walking into the area where these flowers were sat in a a vase; their scent was heady and impossible to ignore. Every time I walked past the area where the vase was situated it was as if it was for the first time. The story behind acquiring some of the bulbs is lengthy but I obtained four from a nursery in the South Island; they cost $5 each with freight extra. I'm planning to give then four years before diving them if the containers can cope. This is their second year since planting and this year we got two leaders with about five flower heads on each leader.
What follows is a series of pictures taken as I walked round the table in the house where we're living.
This first picture is of a highly fragrant asiatic lilly that Judy picked from another plany we'd brought with us when we moved. The deep pink set off the lovely creamy white colour of the other lillies.
There's even some incredibly prickly red roses Judy added for additional colour contrast. I had to move a lot of stuff out of the way because this is actually a quite small table and I was trying not to show too much of the cheap plastic jug the flowers are sitting in. We had only a dim idea of where our flower vases may be; they're in a box some where...
This view demonstrates all the lilly flowers yet to open.
We found the scent inside could be a little on the overwhelming side after a few days. As cut flowers, lillies last for ages and I think most people enchanted by the scent tend to get their noses a bit too close to the stamens. As a result it's common to see folk walking round with saffron coloured spots on their noses or clothes if folk get that close as to brush against the open flowers.
Truly, if I could send samples of the scent I would.
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