Do maple trees emit a scent?

Q: This is my favorite time of the year, and the maples are a large part of that. My sister and I have been walking through the Arboretum every Saturday morning for a year or so now and have seen and enjoyed all of the seasonal changes. There is one section just beyond the Winter Garden area where recently a very strong, sweet fragrance wafted through the air. It stops us dead in our tracks every time, and we cannot figure out what it is!

My question then for you is, is it possible the maple trees in the area are fragrant? We have sniffed just about every plant, tree and grass and think it might be the maples that are responsible for this fabulous scent.

A: I'm afraid it wasn't the scent of the maples that caught your attention, although we could wish maple foliage were as fragrant as it is beautiful. I checked with Washington Park Arboretum plant collections manager Randall Hitchin, who says he's come across visitors sniffing the autumn air in the area you describe. "It's the best-kept secret in the Arboretum," says Hitchin, of the supremely fragrant Osmanthus x fortunei, which he believes is the source of the scent. "Apricots and freesia rolled up together," is how Hitchin describes this shrub's perfume. It's hard to figure out where the fragrance is wafting from, because the tiny white flowers that pack such a hit of perfume are nearly hidden beneath the foliage of this big evergreen shrub that blooms October through November.

The parade of fragrance that sweetens the Arboretum's Winter Garden from November through March is just beginning. Hitchin suggests nosing out other November fragrances, including the spicily scented foliage of the katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), which smells lovely even when fallen to the ground as leaf litter, as well as the flowers of glossy-leafed Camellia sasanqua and the autumn-blooming witch hazel Hamamelis virginiana.

Q: I'd planned to force pots of tulips and daffodils as Christmas gifts — is there still time to get them to bloom before Christmas?

A: You're too late for tulips and daffodils, but you do have time to force the two easiest and showiest kinds of bulbs. Supremely fragrant paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta) bloom in three to five weeks, and if you get started right away, you can bring statuesque amaryllis into bloom by Christmas, too (they take six to eight weeks).

You would have had to be potting and chilling in September to have tulips, crocus, iris, daffodils and hyacinths in flower for Christmas. They all need a period of chilling, then lots of light and warmth to flower — a process that takes 12 to 14 weeks.

Valerie Easton also writes about Plant Life in Sunday's Pacific Northwest magazine. Write to her at P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111 or e-mail planttalk@seattletimes.com with your questions. Sorry, no personal replies.