Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Ann Burlingham, posting on Facebook today, recalled with delight the emergence in 2020 of the snowdrops that she had planted when she and Jason first moved to Pittsburgh:

(#1)

And then the discussion roamed far and wide, to fragrances, Switzerland, and Viking ships.

Stroll with me now through the fields of associative memory…

— Aric Olnes: I need to plant some snowdrops.

Storytime: My stepmom Carolyn sold Avon when I was in high school and we (my same-age step-sister Laura) had to go door-to-door hanging up flyers on our neighbor’s door knobs & delivering paid-for products. One of my gifts for helping was my favorite room spray — Swiss Snow Drops. That and the really cool 1977 Viking ship men’s cologne bottle:

(#2)

— AZ > AO: Google says “No results found for “Swiss Snow Drops” room spray”, so it’s probably not made any more. What did it smell like? (Actual common snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, are quite common in Switzerland, but the flowers are, alas, scentless. If anyone asks you what they smell like, just tell them that they smell exactly like edelweiss.)

— AO > AZ: It had a clean, light fragrance almost rose-like. Very inoffensive as smells go.

Note: I’d intended to display a photo of snowdrops blooming in an Alpine valley. There are many such photos to be found on the net, and they are excellently, picturesquely Swiss. But as far as I can see, they are all licensable, not free goods, so you’ll have to imagine the postcard.

This entry was posted on February 27, 2023 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Language and plants, Smell, Switzerland and Swiss things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.