Night Jessamine
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Christine Harris
Posted on: August 27, 1998

My night jessmine (Cestrum nocturnum) is now 3 feet tall and in bloom but I don’t catch any scent? Can I feed it something to enhance the scent?

The flowers are only fragrant during warm nights. If you still can’t smell anything under those conditions then try growing the plant with more phosphate and a touch drier. It could also be that you have no receptors for the scent. The sense of smell is developed and if you have never encountered this scent before you may not have any receptors for it in your nasal passages. I come across this phenomenon quite frequently while judging orchids. A bloom that is very fragrant to some of the judges is scentless to others in the group. The person lacking receptors for particular scents varies!

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