PlantFiles: Annual Stock, Perfume Plant, Night-scented Stock
Matthiola longipetala

I will be sowing some of these this coming winter (as it's to hot here in the tropics for most annuals in summer) and I'll let u guys know how it goes

I planted Scented Stock in a pot about 4 years ago. It has given me blooms every year since, and without buying new seeds. I live in southern Arizona in high desert area. This year I had enough plants in the pot to transplant some into other pots. I have it near our lounge chairs on the front porch, where it's fragrance can be enjoyed. I make sure to let the flowers dry so it will form seeds for the next year, and it does, faithfully.

I planted seeds for this plant for the first time last June and they have enthralled me all summer with their perfume, it is sublime. Although the flowers themselves are not very large and they can tend to become a little leggy, I should imagine that if they were planted with another fuller bodied plant they would look much better. I was really impatient to collect the seeds and it wasn't until 6 weeks ago (end of December 2009) that I was able to collect them once they had dried on the plants. I can't wait to sow them again this year, I will even try to get them in the ground earlier, in order to prolong their season and enjoy their perfume for longer.

This is definitely one of those plants that once you grow it you will never want to go another summer without it. The scent is like vanilla cloves and its very strong.I really enjoy this little plant, its not very visually stunning but when the sun goes down you will know why you grow it! Great plant, does very well in my garden. One of my favorites; if you haven't grown it and decide to it will soon become one of your favorites also.

I love these plants! They don't look that exciting during the day - rather unkempt - but come evening, the little flowers open and the most wonderful cocoa-butter scent wafts across your yard.

They also self-seeded quite readily in my yard - but if they didn't I would buy them every spring anyway, because they smell great.

Amazing ...so tiny ...and such a great scent ! This is absolutly one of my favourites. I sow these in pots..you could easily mistaken it for a weed during daytime. In the evening though..one little flower, only as big as a drop of rain, will perfume your whole garden..

This is a great plant-an old favorite of mine-it is a little, frail weedy thing in the daytime-but the flowers lift their heads when the sun sets and just put out this delicious fragrance. Some plants seem to be MUCH more fragrant than others-and soil chemistry may have something to do with this. I'm not sure but I think that they are also much more fragrant in positions where they aren't too inundated with fertilizer and tending - like an edible herb they like to suffer a bit! It makes them more intense. someplace a bit dry that you dont fertilize alot

I have occasionally sown them in containers with other more decorative plants-thinking that I would 'borrow' their fragrance that way...it usually doesn't work, as they either die from to much care, or just don't smell all that much, where their compatriots that were sown out at the neglected end of a bed somewhere REALLY go crazy! ...some plants are just little wild things-no matter what you try to train them into!!

Not the showiest flower but worth adding to the garden for the wonderful evening fragrance. Plants grow up to 2 feet tall with pale lilac or white flowers that open in the evening to release their perfume.