I've had a little gift in my classroom this week - the beautiful fragrance of spring, a scent reminiscent of honeysuckle but sweeter.
I noticed it Monday morning when I first walked into my room after having been gone sick last week. At first, I was curious where such a beautiful scent was coming from, what room freshener had been sprayed. But the fragrance didn't fade; it persisted and in fact maybe got stronger. It took me a little while to figure out that it was coming from the corn plant I have growing in a pot.
My mom gave me the plant about a year ago. It had lived in her house for many years, but my parents moved and didn't have room for it anymore. I was happy to take it off her hands and have had it living in my classroom ever since.
The corn plant, or dracaena fragrans, is a pretty common, boring houseplant. The blossoms aren't especially showy. I hadn't actually realized that a corn plant grows blossoms, and certainly not such fragrant blooms. It was especially surprising for me to learn that it is fairly rare for a corn plant to flower, mostly in mature plants. The boys in my class, of course, felt the need to sample the sap dripping from the blossoms and informed me that it was sweet. And my room has smelled beautifully all week. It won't last much longer, I suspect, but I have appreciated this surprising gift for these last several bitter winter days.
Flowers
You rarely find flowers on indoor plants from the Dracaena genus, D. fragrans
though is the exception. Pay attention when we say the flowers are
still not frequent enough to call their appearance "common", but they do
occur occasionally if the plant is mature and being treated well.
Sprays of small numerous white flowers will come shooting out of the
crown and they have a highly fragrant almost sickly sweet scent.
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