Jasmine, my favourite white flower

 As mentioned in one of my previous blog entries, I fell in love with the scent of jasmine from my dearly departed grandmother’s hair bun and the ones she grew in her garden. She also sometimes would place jasmine in her bedak sejuk (cooling powder in English) to scent it naturally. Last year’s nationwide lockdown came as a blessing for it had given me the time to rearrange my surrounding living space and as I blogged previously, the lockdown bore the fruit of my balcony garden. One of the flower plants growing in my balcony’s planter is jasmine and I have two different types of jasmine in the same planter. One of the species is Arabian Jasmine (I think) was bought to fulfil my son’s request. The reason for him choosing the Arabian Jasmine is because of the petals’ shape that according to him closely resemble our surname’s emblem in Japanese word; Rezan. 

I have had both species since August last year and so far, each one of these jasmines seemed to be taking turns to bear flowers. Imagine my thrill yesterday evening when I spotted both plants blooming in full. I just love the aroma they filled in my balcony especially at night as the scent got stronger after sunset. Some people in my culture believe that strongly scented flower particularly jasmine attract spiritual beings. God forbid, I don’t wish to attract such beings. My intention of having sweetly scented jasmine was purely for its beautiful fragrance and most of all, they are simply pretty to look at. 

p/s: I can't quite recall the name of the species I bought online. I had to google them and came across a few sites on jasmines that I find interesting: https://www.gardenguides.com/138962-history-jasmine-flower.html, https://leafyplace.com/types-of-jasmine-flowers/