Linnetontheleaf

I was recently lucky enough to spend a couple of days in New Orleans, though with the very specific and limited goal of visiting a college with one of our offspring, so we confined ourselves to Uptown and didn’t have much time for sightseeing. (Or even for music or dining, NOLA’s two great triumphs.) Still, I found just walking down the street to be a highly aesthetic experience, because the balmy air was deliciously, seductively perfumed with the scent of confederate jasmine and gardenias. Where I live in the NE near NYC (zone 6 for you gardeners), these are diminutive houseplants. In New Orleans, jasmine vines clamber over walls and fences in jungly billows, and gardenias grow to be the size of minivans. Both are laden with flowers, luxuriantly spangling their dark glossy leaves. It’s like being in the world’s finest perfumerie, though no human creation could match the sweetness of these fragrances.