If you’re walking or biking in South Jersey these days and are suddenly surrounded by a heavenly scent, you just may be passing by a mock-orange or wild rose in bloom. Both tend to ramble in overgrown brambly areas and on old properties. Mock Orange (Philadelphus var’s) has been cultivated for 400 years. Its white blooms open along long arching sprays and will fill a yard or a room with the scent of sweet orange – intoxicating!
Another heavenly scented late spring bloomer, wild rose, reminds me more of grapes, iris and light perfume. Also white, but smaller than mock orange, wild rose flowers grow in clusters on a cascading curtain of vine that handily rambles up and over anything in its path. Some may consider this a nuisance, but it’s hard to be annoyed when you encounter its incredible scent!
A walk through the South Jersey woods in late spring is apt to take you along a corridor of Mountain Laurel in bloom. Often mistaken for rhododendron, mountain laurel also has leathery leaves. Its flower clusters, however, are a bit smaller than native rhododendron and white or light pink rather than lavender. Although South Jersey’s woods are known for ticks and mosquitoes as well as beautiful scenery, it’s worth the gamble to experience this fairy land of white!
These Mountain Laurels are just beginning to bloom into what will become a veritable corridor of white.
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