Stinkin Cleome

I never would have grown cleome had a new gardening friend not pressed the seeds upon me. In my opinion, cleome look weedy. She, however, insisted that there was no better flower. I said, “What the hell,” and planted them with the rest of my annuals in March.

We both had very poor germination (the seeds were from Ed Hume), but I managed to raise three seedlings in a strawberry container. I don’t recommend strawberry containers for winter sowing, or even spring sowing. The many vents cause the soil to dry out rapidly. My poor cleome seedlings demonstrated their will to live, though, and hung on through the drought-like conditions. At last, I took pity upon them and planted them in the witch hazel bed.

Sometime after I planted them out, I heard that cleome is fragrant. The promise of scent had me watering and weeding my three seedlings, awaiting a flower. This week, the most vigorous plant bloomed. I buried my face in the wispy flowers and inhaled. Quite puzzled, I sniffed again. There was no doubt about it, cleome smells like skunk!

The plants are fragrant indeed. They have a light, musky, animal odor. I would not recommend cutting a bouquet of cleome for the dining table, or anywhere else in the house. While the effect of one plant is mild, I can only imagine the stink that a sweep of cleome would make.

A discussion of cleome’s fragrance on GardenWeb was quite enlightening. Apparently, the bruised foliage smells as bad, or worse, than the blooms. While some people don’t smell a thing (personal genetics, I suppose), others find the odor so offensive that they will not have cleome in their garden. I have the plants far enough away from any sitting areas (and the house) that the smell is not a problem. In fact, I think I’ll grow it again next year because, now that I’ve seen it in my garden, I don’t think it is weedy at all!