Most of the time, candles don’t capture the fragrance they say they will. Lavender and vanilla scents are the most common offenders, with all sorts of weird sweet and sickly chemical odors masquerading as their real essences. As such, I’m a picky candle selector, insisting on deeply inhaling any candle I’m about to purchase unless it’s a known brand and scent. That’s proven impossible in this day and age, when I’m as afraid to remove my mask as I am to touch an object in any given store. Luckily, I know my favorites, and the one that has been my mainstay for many years has been this ‘Greenhouse’ variety by Yankee Candle.
It smells exactly like the greenhouse/florists of my childhood, when I’d wander in as a young boy and the owners would eye me suspiciously until I started asking them questions about whether the African violet in bud was semi-double or double, and if they were due to receive any new bromeliads in the next week. Wherever we’d travel, I’d keep an eye out for the local florist – I remember a tiny little flower shop in Boston when we were visiting with Mom. It was across the street from our hotel, and it was all I cold think about. It was just a tiny little thing at the base of what I would later discover to be the other side of Beacon Hill, barely enough room for two people to turn around in at once, but it was all I needed. To be surrounded by all the lush green foliage, and that gloriously pungent odor of earth and leaves and flowers – it felt like paradise – then and now.
So if anyone is looking for a basic, simple gift for me, you know – just because – this would make an excellent choice because one can never have enough of such a good thing.
