May 27, 2010

Gardenias, Chanel & Me

I adore gardenias, as you might have noticed. My heirloom plant is currently blooming and I’ve been giving flowers to the older ladies who sit across the street from my house and watch the neighbourhood. gardenia 004One of the things I love about gardenias, aside from their creamy white flowers, is their peppery scent. While I love the peonies I’ve been getting, I often find their scent to be cloyingly sweet. The gardenia is much more complex.chanel gardenia

I received an e-mail from Chanel today, announcing their GARDÉNIA perfume, in which fresh gardenias and dewy greens combine for an intoxicating scent.Chanel Gardenia Bottle and this is what they had to say about it:

Sweet and voluptuous, an intense fragrance of absolute femininity. Created by CHANEL Master Perfumer Ernest Beaux in 1925, GARDÉNIA is an olfactive ode to Mademoiselle Chanel's favorite flower. gardenia 001 A vanilla base rises to meet a heart of sweet fruit and creamy gardenia petals, accented with coconut. Sending the scent aloft: the crisp greens of the flower's morning leaves.

At $200 for 6.8 oz. I think I will just enjoy the scent of my own gardenias.

16 comments:

  1. I am still a big fan of #5, you can never go wrong with a classic. Just like the gardenia, lovely at any age any time, Happy weekend,Kathysue

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  2. I've never been able to get a gardenia to winter over here in No Va. My in-laws have HUGE bushes in the Newport News area. I'm jealous. And my birthday is next week and now I know what to ask for!

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  3. Gardenias will forever be the flower of my youth. My neighbor grew them under her bedroom window so the intoxicating smell would fill her room with its exotic sweetness. In southern Oklahoma, the gardenia was a temptress, often getting KO'd by a freaky winter storm. She always replanted a new one. She was the first person who taught me that gardening was a commitment. My lovely friend died before she turned 40. Gardenias and her lovely, wacky humor are forever intertwined.

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  4. Meg! My husband and I have been faithfully waiting for our gardenia topiary "tree" to bloom on our back patio, and finally, 4 days ago we got the first open flower!! We are so excited. Since then, 3 more, with many more to come. Here in Texas you just never know if the conditions will be right for them to come on! They are magnificent!

    And this very morning I put on Chanel's Gardenia...it is one of my favorites that I have worn for a number of years now, since first receiving it as a gift from a dear friend who was the manager of their boutique here in Dallas. It is such a fresh fragrance!

    Great post today, Meg! Thanks for sharing!

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  5. The gardenia is taken in and out. I take it outside in April, after all chance of frost is over, and then back in at Halloween, before the first frosts begin. I am "tempering" it under my tree, so that the leaves don't burn in the sun.

    My gardenia, which I wrote about here, is a 15-year old cutting from a now 50-year old plant.

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  6. What could be better than Chanel and gardenias? You either love them both or neither one.

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  7. I am a lover of both...makes my life richer I am sure.

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  8. Great story, I love gardenias, but the perfume has to wait!
    I am in love with Tocca's Cleopatra!

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  9. love gardenias too - miss is got a gardenia last year for her prom corsage - oh it took me back to my youth - this year no gardenia, no heavenly scent, but pretty roses for the prom

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  10. One of my favorite flowers. Have you seen Coco Before Chanel? It is wonderful.

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  11. i went to a wedding where they pinned gardenia flowers all over the hedge walls. so during the cocktail hour we nibbled and sipped whilst enveloped in their majestic magical bouquet! heavenly!

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  12. Oh, you had me at the picture; then all that G-talk, and mentioning Chanel's email. But, alas, I'll have to buy a flower vs. the parfum. Love this...

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  13. i think i'll try to beg for a sample to be sent!!!

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  14. Meg, my kindred spirit, I brought home a bottle of Chanel's Gardenia from a trip to Monaco. I treasure every drop. I consider it definitely my summer scent of choice. I won't use it until my gardenias are in bloom! Let me just tell you, your flowers smell JUST like the Chanel! Pin one to your suit and go for it!

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  15. I also love gardenias. Last week one of my high School teachers tuck me out to lunch and brought over a vase of gardenias freshly picked from her garden. She told me that on the first Valentines day that they hand spent in there Historic home they bought each other a gardenia bush, this was in 1972. They both are still in her garden. I thought this was so romantic and I was lucky to have flowers from one of the plants.

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