Imagine a world where the heat from a waking sun gently warms a meandering breeze that releases the most wonderful rich fragrance from the tiniest white flowers delicately balanced along wiry stems. This precious and complex fragrance envelops you in a warm, comforting cocoon of amber honey mixed with a hint of cinnamon, a little splash of citrus and a whisper of floral sweetness, reminiscent of jasmine.
This is the world I stepped into when one of my oregano plants recently started blooming. For flowers that are so tiny, the scent is surprisingly strong and mixed together with the mild spicy scent of the leaves it’s quite marvellous.
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I’ve been researching which subspecies of oregano this is but have found conflicting information. I’ve seen it referred to in some articles as Italian oregano, but images I’ve found on several horticultural sites don’t match the plant I have (the leaves in the photos are larger and more of a gray/green colour whereas my plant has smaller, darker green oval shaped leaves). I shall continue with my research travels to try and confirm the exact species and subspecies.
One of the oregano plants I have started life as a small cutting from a kind neighbour that I put in some potting soil. It took about three weeks to catch and I’ve been pruning the ends of the stems in the hopes of encouraging it to grow into more of a bush rather than one straggly stem with a few side branches (which is what happened to one of my sage plants before I realised the importance of pinching the main stem at an early stage). I bought the other plant when it was at a much more mature stage. It has quite a few wiry side branches growing from a thicker main stem and is the first to bloom. I’ve been pruning it a bit and I’ll need to transplant it into a bigger pot soon as it’s starting to get rootbound.
So far I haven’t had much of a problem with pests. Spider mites and white flies can be an issue around here and recently, what appears to be a rogue caterpillar is munching its way through my jasmine plants. Neem oil and dash of washing-up liquid mixed with water seems to be helping to ward off whatever it is (that and bringing the plants indoors at night). None of these problems have affected the oregano plants so far, thank goodness. They withstand the heat of the day very well, although I’ve noticed that leaves exposed to the sun turn a paler green/yellow after a while compared with those that are in the shade. This seems to be a common theme with most of the plants I have here, but it’s fixed by moving them to partial or full shade.
Through the natural world, life brings magnificence in many unexpected places. I didn’t expect oregano flowers to smell so beautiful and it has been a true delight to discover such a captivating, multidimensional fragrance hidden within the tiny blooms of this unassuming plant.