My friend Daphne

Allow me to introduce you to Daphne odora, (fragrant winter daphne), a garden friend with the kind of unanticipated virtues that make relationships of all types wonderful. For the better part of nine months out of the year she has the pleasing, predictable consistency sought in every friend; the kind of "I am here when you need me" evergreen nature. And then, when you least expect it, she has the tenacity to bloom in January; the prima donna of the winter garden in both floral show and fragrance. It is her fragrance though that is worth highlighting.
Words cannot really articulate the combination of spice and sweet that permeates the air around her presence--a mix of honeysuckle and the tropics. She has the ability to turn heads and slow passersby and intrigue the uninterested. As if she would say with her fragrance, "Just when you thought there wasn't anything to be noticed, here I am, to contradict your pessimistic notions."
Alas, there is no virtual "scratch-and-sniff" function for blogging. I would love to share it with you, but I imagine that Bath & Body Works may soon capture her scent in a bottle and commercialize it as lotion for $10.50. I would prefer for her fragrance to stay mysterious, surprising, and uncommon--as the sweet reward of venturing out in the garden when most of the rest of the earth sleeps. Hers is the kind of resolute spirit to create cheer in a vacuum, a very endearing quality to be sure.