14 Comments
User's avatar
Cuir de Rube's avatar

I’m also a fellow linden lover! I like how a row of mature trees will scent the air for blocks. I like this dispersed scent rather than the intense nose to bloom scent. It’s such a wonderful 2 weeks.

You’re very right about a general lack of identification skills for trees, plants, and flowers. I hope this changes. I’m definitely no expert, but I’m at least curious.

Joseph Colbourne's avatar

I am hoping it will become a movement of sorts; a reaction to screen culture and its divorce from the physical world. A dramatic shift would make my heart sing.

Cuir de Rube's avatar

I hope so too.

Denyse Beaulieu's avatar

I'm the woman going on her hands and knees having a sniff at anything that blooms in the neighborhood's lush front yard. Carnations, recently... I miss the tilleul explosition in Paris so much, though!

Joseph Colbourne's avatar

I just smelled the most wondrous dianthus blooms recently. They made my mouth water.

Melissa Thompson's avatar

There are some linden trees planted in the light industrial business park I work in. I take short walks just to smell them some days, past the prairie dog town and the roofing facility. I smell the blossoms from half a block away - along with the sweet vanilla scent of knotweed - and hear hundreds of insects buzzing and gathering the pollen. Bliss.

Joseph Colbourne's avatar

It sure sounds like bliss. I love when industrial/business parks have lovely ornamental trees to off set the starkness of their landscape.

FragrancePhyto's avatar

The closest thing to capturing it I have found is to drink the tissane with linden honey. Jean Claude Ellena even said he gave up trying to bottle it and chose to just lie under the tree instead.

Joseph Colbourne's avatar

I appreciate Ellena being so forthright with his opinions! I do think there are some delightful linden soliflores and as I mentioned in the article, I will be featuring them soon on my Instagram. 😊

FragrancePhyto's avatar

He is a minimalist to be fair

Judith's avatar

I wonder if you know anything about my favorite linden fragrance, Eau de Grâce Tilleul by Mathias Paris, which I bought at Takashimaya in New York in the late 90s. I have never been able to find much about this house online and have always been curious if the perfumer went on to create other fragrances. It’s the closest I’ve ever found to standing beneath a tree full of linden flowers.

Joseph Colbourne's avatar

I have no knowledge of that one!

Frauke Galia's avatar

Smell smell away! It’s a beautiful thing and the more we do it in front of others the more normal the behavior may become for everyone. At least that’s the dream 😊. Thank you for your beautiful writing. I love the smell of linden blossoms too - reminds me of Germany.

Joseph Colbourne's avatar

That is the dream indeed. 😊 You're most welcome, and I so appreciate you as well. You inspire me!