Regions: South India

Opens at four in the afternoon and self-sows itself around the garden.

A monsoon annual of verandah pots, with seed pods children cannot leave alone.

Velvet crested heads that hold colour for weeks, in sun or half shade.

A pot by an open window does more for a summer evening than any air freshener.

The small-flowered jasmine of the monsoon, sweeter at dusk than at noon.

The Spanish jasmine of the perfume trade, grown widely in the north and west.

Green by day and overpowering by night; plant it away from a bedroom window.

Drops its scented white flowers at dawn — the harsingar of temple courtyards.

Grows from a bare cutting pushed into dry soil; scents a whole terrace.

Golden champa — a tall tree whose flowers are sold by the handful at dusk.