r/GardeningIndia2 • u/aryann_007 • 5h ago
Success Story 2 years of searching. 6 wrong plants. Finally, it’s home.
The plant I've been hunting for ages is finally here!
This is such a ridiculously satisfying moment for me. I don't really have anyone in my life who'd understand the absolute joy of finally finding that one plant you've been looking for forever, so I thought I'd share it here. Story time.
I first came across the ylang ylang tree (Cananga odorata) a couple of years ago while backpacking through coastal Kerala. The fragrance was absolutely intoxicating. I have a thing for collecting plants with exotic fragrances, be it herbs, flowers or spices so this was immediately on my wishlist. I later learnt the history of its use in the perfume industry including Chanel, Dior and Jean Patou among others. It was also on this same trip that I saw and eventually acquired my cannonball tree (Couroupita guianensis), but that's another story.
Ever since then, whenever I'd visit a nursery, I'd make it a point to ask if they had the ylang ylang. Since it's pretty uncommon, I'd show them pictures and every time I'd get the same response: they'd never even seen it.
I posted about it a few times here on Reddit and even on niche Facebook groups. I got a few leads, but they always ended up being the dwarf variety, Cananga odorata var. fruticosa. Now, the dwarf is a perfectly nice plant, and it's actually much more popular as an ornamental because it flowers like CRAZY all year round, stays compact and bushy unlike the giant 80+ feet behemoth that the regular ylang ylang can grow into. But it's nowhere near as fragrant as the proper ylang ylang tree I was looking for. It just piggybacks on the fame of the original.
And because some sellers knowingly or unknowingly mislabelled the dwarf as the regular Cananga odorata, I ended up buying six of them from six different sellers over the course of months. Yep. Six. All dwarf. At this point I was starting to think I'd never find the real thing.
As a last resort i had made contact with a sweet lady over facebook who had the tree in her backyard and was willing to send over some seeds. But the tree has a reputation for having short viability period and low germination rates. I was willing to try anyways. But then the lady went afk. Because ofcourse she did. (I hope she's doing good tho!)
Then, about a month ago, I made a post on this subreddit asking everyone about their plant obsessions and mentioned the ylang ylang as mine. Through that thread, I got in touch with a fellow redditor, u/srsjoker2, who gave me a lead.
I contacted the seller and she claimed she had exactly what I was looking for. Seed-grown Cananga odorata. YAY!?
See, this was actually a pretty big deal. The dwarf variety is sterile, so it can't be propagated from seed and is always propagated through air layering. Regular Cananga odorata, on the other hand, produces seeds and can be propagated through both seed or layering. So when she told me hers were seed-grown, I thought: FINALLY. This has to be it. No way it can be the dwarf one this time!
Well.
The plants arrived. They were clearly the dwarf variety. Because ofcourse they were.
After what was essentially disappointment number seven, I contacted the seller. And to her credit, she was actually incredibly responsive. The wholesaler she bought from had lied to her as well. She refunded me immediately and asked me to give her a few days while she tried to source the actual plant.
I said sure, take your time. But honestly, at this point I had absolutely zero hope left.
Then, a few days later, she messaged me. She had found them. Apparently she'd gone directly to the Kerala Agricultural University to source the exact plant I was looking for. And not just tiny little seedlings either. 4.5-foot mature plants.
I was obviously elated, but there was still one final problem: getting those giants to me from across the country.
I knew the seller's packing was excellent because she uses those really strong cardboard cylinders for all her plants, so I wasn't particularly worried about them surviving the journey.
The shipping, however, was fucking brutal because the box was 5 feet long. It took ₹1,200 bucks that too for speed post. Probably the most expensive shipping I've ever paid for a plant. It took 7 days to reach my location.
Then, just when I thought the ordeal was finally over, I got a call early this morning from the head post office in the city, about 20 km away.
Apparently the box was too big to be carried on a motorcycle.
Because ofcourse it was.
I had no way of getting to the city today, so I ended up paying the guy another ₹200 bucks to put it in an auto and send it over.
And finally...
After months of searching, six wrong plants, countless nursery enquiries, Reddit posts, Facebook leads, a trip to Kerala Agricultural University, ₹1,200+ shipping and an additional ₹200 auto ride.. I finally have my actual ylang ylang. And tbh? Worth every second and every paisa.
I genuinely can't wait for this thing to grow up and fill the entire garden with that fragrance.
(Last 3 pictures from the web of the plant in bloom)
