Pakistan Gardening Forum

Munir sahib always raises deep questions. I was reading an article of 1960s that studied the fragrance emission from raat ki raani blooms. I didn't want to bore everyone with technical details but story was very interesting. Now I have to share it.

The researchers found something unexpected. Raat ki raani does not "care" whether it is day nor night to "order" its flowers to emit fragrance. Instead what they found is the there is a biological clock of 24 hours in the plant! With Allah mian's qudrat it matches with our days and night. So light level has NOTHING to do with raat ki raani's fragrance. That shocked me. I believe if raat ki rani were growing on the North pole, with 6 months of daylight, after every 12 hours the flowers will become fragrant. They also found that temperature affects the scent levels - with lower temperature of course the scent level was low.

So now I suspect the Munir sahib has to wait for the right temperature, humidity level and the right wind direction ;-) to enjoy the full fragrance of raat ki raani. If someone is interested in reading that article pm me (it is a subscription based article). I could not find any reliable website which states that there exists a variety of raat ki rani which is not fragrant (the coloured ones indeed have no scent at all).

Regards.

That is indeed amazing...

No more waiting,I will get a plant each from the Nursery duly checked, though doubt if they will know if it is fragrant,but instantly say yes.
Simultaneously, get cuttings from a confirmed bush & grow as explained by Tahir.
On Din ka Raja,I could smell a very pleasing fragrance from quite a distance, while walking through the Golf Course weeks back.

farah fayyaz wrote: But there is a bad news.Nowadays it has been attacked by amar bail.And I could not defeat it.Now it is mostly destroyed.I m planning to plant a new one but first I will check its fragrance , then I will chop this one.Last year, i tried to use its cutting but failed.Mostly my guest demand for it, therefore I tried to save its cuttings .

why you are planning to cut down the whole plant just because of amar bail, just cut down the effected area the let the plant grow once again and everything will be fine .

Hamad

I have not seen or heard of raat ke raani which is not fragrant. There is this story that since the raat ke rrani is too much fragrant it attracts snakes. Now one of my pakhtoon friends believe that you need to have plant of "Tulsi" aka "Murwa" near raat ke raani plant to keep the snakes away from that area..
I have one plant of raat ki raani and its fragrant too. It was giving shabby look in winters so I had cut it by about 60%, it has not yet bloomed but it should in 2-3 weeks..

why you are planning to cut down the whole plant just because of amar bail, just cut down the effected area the let the plant grow once again and everything will be fine .

Hamad[/quote]
I have cut down it yesterday because amar bail had reached up to top . Only stems (12") have been left to grow them again.It was a huge plant.So sad on its departure.But it was the only solution as bail could damage other plants too.

farah fayyaz wrote:I have cut down it yesterday because amar bail had reached up to top . Only stems (12") have been left to grow them again.It was a huge plant.So sad on its departure.But it was the only solution as bail could damage other plants too.

Amer bail produces seeds as well. So the seeds are right there in the soil. Keep an eye on any new yellow strings. You can search Cuscata or dodder on the internet to read more about it.

M Farooq wrote:

farah fayyaz wrote:I have cut down it yesterday because amar bail had reached up to top . Only stems (12") have been left to grow them again.It was a huge plant.So sad on its departure.But it was the only solution as bail could damage other plants too.

Amer bail produces seeds as well. So the seeds are right there in the soil. Keep an eye on any new yellow strings. You can search Cuscata or dodder on the internet to read more about it.

Yes, there were seeds too.I will monitor them InshaAllah.