Question:
Fragrance: Wild Plum Blossoms
Perfumer: Creation
Every year I go out in the country to enjoy the blooming of the wild plum trees. The roads and trails are lined with thickets of snarled wild growth, providing shelter and food for animals. The fruits are too sour for people, but they grow in abundance at the end of the summer.
For a short, precious time in April, the plum blossoms open. The branches of the trees are filled with large clusters of white flowers, and when the breeze blows, their fragrance can be smelled from a distance. I am drawn all the way into their midst by the aroma.
I stood in the middle of the plum thicket, taking these photos at sunset. The bees and insects buzzed among the flowers. The air was filled with the intoxicating scent of wild plum blossoms. What did it smell like?

A fruity, honeyed aroma of exceedingly sweet green powder...
Last night, they were caught in an unexpected freeze. The temperatures dropped, and the blossoms may have been destroyed for this season. I was dismayed. The flowers had failed in their purpose to set on fruit. There will probably be few plums this summer. But then, I realized that the absence of fruit would allow the trees to use their energy for themselves. Unburdened by the needs of the plums, the trees would put their strength into their own roots, leaves, and branches, making for better, healthier trees next year.
In all things there exists some miracle.
Thank you for letting me share this fragrance miracle with you.
Thanks for your patience with my poetic moment.
It really is about fragrance, you know--the original fragrance of nature.

Answer:
How I wish I could be there with you! I've never smelled the scent of plum trees in the springtime, and I would give a lot to be able to do so. How lucky you are to have these trees near you!

Answer:
That's it!
I'm setting up a fund at the First National Bank of Nebraska to buy Purplebird the latest headspace-technology, scent-molecule-analyzing aromascope machine ... and a lab ... with a staff to direct at her bidding. Who's with me?

Answer:
I just had to sign in and say that I am in awe of your writing purplebird. You make me feel as though I am right there along with you smelling those wonderful scents of spring. I enjoy reading what you write just for the joy of reading it. It becomes a virtual scent fest of it's own.

Answer:
What beautiful photography, Purplebird! I was also dimayed to see that many of the flowering trees lost their brand new blossoms overnight here! Monday it was in the 70's and while out bike riding, we smelled saucer magnolias wafting everywhere. Now the delicate fleshy pink & white blooms are shrivelled & brown. It just makes each perfect spring day that much more precious.

Answer:
What a lovely moment! Our freezing night is predicted for tonight, and my neighbors and I have conferenced on watering, covering, cutting braches for indoors, etc. It's got us in a panic--think what it must do to orange growers!

Answer:
My goodness, Purplebird, the fragrance phoenix rising from the ashes of the little bird is indeed a wondrous creature.
Quarry's on to something. There are several people on these boards I'd love to give headspace technology, and see where they'd go with it. Oh, heck with it - one for all of us!
I have a scent memory of a favorite summmer scene - to try and recreate it would bring despair I think.
In my area there are certain salt water flats covered by a mile of wild iris (which I collect and breed). When I fly and land in amongst them the first time, it's as if I'm floating into a cloud of purple, one I've actually started dreaming about several weeks earlier. When I step out of the plane, the smell has a profound impact because of my eagerness to be there. But it isn't the smell of iris, which is odorless in this species, but of the rich fragrance of Silverberry blossoms, which is like green gardenia on the air, but soapier if you try to inhale it at close range. It resists the attempt to force it - it must come to you. These flats are covered with Silverberry, and massive bushes of wild rose. At the end of Silverberry flower season, and the beginning of rose, the two fragrances intersect, to profound effect. I've heard that smells are stronger in warmer areas, that Lilacs are only a shadow of their southern glory here, so I always feel this must be what it's like for my southern neighbors every spring and summer. To try and recreate this fragrance, what with the extra smells of willow, sedge wetlands, salt air, and glacial silt (mineral?) is a task for a master perfumer, far beyond me.
So, like you Purplebird, I enjoy it for what it is, and can never be - a bottled scent.

Answer:
Originally Posted by flathorn In my area there are certain salt water flats covered by a mile of wild iris (which I collect and breed). When I fly and land in amongst them the first time, it's as if I'm floating into a cloud of purple... That noise you hear is the sound of my jaw hitting the floor.

Answer:
So nice to see so many descriptions, vulnerable, honest and heart-felt. What a priviledge to be on the same fragrance board with you, lovely ladies! Thank you for staying around and for your caring and sharing your wonderful poetic gift with us all.

Answer:
What a beautiful picture you took and i bet an even MORE beautiful scent. I would love to have been there.