“She heard the twitter of the bluebirds whose families had lived here for decades and longer, and she saw one out-of season, beautifully pure gardenia. And the fragrance of it was so sweet, so innocent, that it was fairy dust to her senses. Smelling it sent her tumbling back and forth through time. And she was at once a young woman dancing in William's arms and an older woman returning to Eden with a new appreciation for its hard-won innocence.” RemembranceBluebirdsGardenia Book:Paint and Nectar Source: Paint and Nectar
“She breathed in the sweet air deeply. Gardenias, if she wasn't mistaken. She once had a gardenia bush back at home, and sometimes when it was blooming, she'd crack open her bedroom window to get whiffs of the smell all night, then wake up sweaty because gardenias always bloomed in May, except every so often, when a deep-summer flower would bloom well past its season.” FlowerGardenia Book:The Dress Shop on King Street Source: The Dress Shop on King Street
“The fragrance of the gardenias along the porch carried on the breeze. The blooms were always sweetest from freshly opened buds. But they had to fall, they had to change, for the roots to grow. So that next season, more buds would open, and the fragrance would spread even farther. Gardenias. She had never painted gardenias before. But they bloomed all at once as she'd never noticed them blooming years prior, and the fragrance was so alluring that the smell of it matched the delicate strokes of her smallest paintbrush, and it was the first of May and the first of so many other things, she was sure.” FragranceGardenia Book:Paint and Nectar Source: Paint and Nectar