If you’re planning a trip to the Sonoran desert, expect to experience more than the barren landscapes you’ve seen in the movies. Far more than a dry and dusty place, the desert is a colorful and dynamic ecosystem that’s home to some of the most fascinating plants and animals in the world. The Queen of the Night is one of them - a unique cactus flower that also helps make the desert an aromatic place, as this Southwest fragrance delicately perfumes the air as far as a quarter mile away!

As though its’ exceptionally fragrant blossoms weren’t special enough, the Queen of the Night cactus, or peniocereus greggii, is a night blooming cereus that only blossoms one summer night each year! Inspired by the story and delighted by the scent, Joann Petz, a native New Yorker with a career in the fragrance industry, made it her mission to capture and bottle this fragrance. She envisioned women’s perfume, as well as other bath and body products so that visitors to the Sonoran desert can take home with them the essence of this intriguing and mysterious place in a women’s fragrance unlike any other on the market today.

"When I learned of the Queen of the Night," says Joann Petz of Once In a Bloom Fragrances, "I was immediately drawn to it. A beautifully fragrant flower that blooms only one night each year! I was at once intri gued, inspired and captivated. What does it smell like? When does it bloom? Do many people know about this flower?"

More than hypothetical questions, Joann took it upon herself to find out the answers.

The Queen of the Night blossom has a fresh floral aroma with a touch of sweetness. It blooms one night between mid-June and the first week in July. As for its popularity, the Queen of the Night is practically unknown – the desert’s most fragrant secret that lends this land some of the mystery that people travel from all of the world to see and experience for themselves. In fact, you can see people doing just that in this video of Annual Bloom Night held in Tucson at Tohono Chul Park.

Joann invited a master perfumer to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix where they spent 10 days waiting for the blossom of this night blooming cereus to make her yearly appearance. After memorizing the scent, this master perfumer went into his laboratory to re-create this unique Southwest fragrance from a mixture of various essential oils for Joann’s Desert Queen® Fragrance Collection.

In addition to women’s perfume, the Queen of the Night fragrance is also available in Hand and Body Lotion, Scented Soap, Bath and Shower Gel and an Aromatic Candle.

So next time you’re in the Sonoran desert towns of Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tucson or in any various cities in the Southwest region, don’t leave without picking up the Desert Queen products at these retail locations. And even if don’t get the chance, you can now get this unique women’s fragrance in Joann’s online store.