Crown imperials (fritillaria imperialis) - wonderful late spring colour and really characterful appearance, but they have a fox-like smell (yeuch) which repels mice, voles and other small animals. We plant them in places well away from paths and sitting areas!

purpleinopp said:Kayleigh, Arlo Guthrie sings this is for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

funny, but yet not really. I can't believe I've never heard that song before. Probably right out of my era too. What was different as well, not to get off the subject, but as I got up from computer to get a little breakfast and coffee while listening, American Pie song came on after the Arlo Guthrie song. I heard lyrics to that song I'd never heard before.

oh well . . . back to fragrance that doesn't always mean smells good . . . . . . . .

Dragon Lilies are supposed to stink but I cannot smell the foulness on them.

Crown Imperials are supposed to stink but they do not smell bad to me unless I put my nose right in them.

The variagated chamelian plant smelled wonderfully lemony to me.

The green chameleon plant smells bad.

Marigolds have a light skunk scent.

I love a smell of Oriental Lilium but my DH cannot bear the scent of them. They smell like puke to him.

Giant hyacinths are too pungent and musky. They give me head aches.

I cannot smell a stink bug.

Certain heirloom iris smell horrible.

Honey Locust blooms and Chinese elm trees smell retarded.

(My white oak has the most incrediblely delicious pineapple spice scent when the young leaves sprout. ❤️❤️❤️).

SpringGreenThumb said:I love a smell of Oriental Lilium but my DH cannot bear the scent of them. They smell like puke to him.

I find oriental lilies smell stinky as well, but certainly not like vomit! I guess everyone has different senses of smell

I walked in a patient's room and thought there must have been 3-4 pissy diapers in the trash. It was the Stargazer Oriental lilies on the night stand.

Chameleon plant smells like oranges to me.
Thalia narcissus, paperwhites, fritillaria uva vulpis, all P U! 😲😲 Bradford pear, big stinker. Ugh.

I love the scent of paperwhites.

Karen

Petunias smell like stinky feet after it rains . I noticed some do smell some don't.

So I suppose this means that it would be important to let your significant other choose your perfume or cologne.

On no, my DH doesn't have a clue about perfume. In fact an old stinky perfume called TABU is the only one that works with my body chemistry. I make IT smell good!

Ohhh Karen, paperwhites? Ack.😫😫

Kabby said:On no, my DH doesn't have a clue about perfume. In fact an old stinky perfume called TABU is the only one that works with my body chemistry. I make IT smell good!

Ohhh Karen, paperwhites? Ack.😫😫

😫😫😫
Oh no!!! Not TABU! Say it isn't so.

My mother used to wear TABU. She loved it. As a child I thought it smelled aweful. I was afraid to tell her and wondered how she could enjoy that nasty stuff.

I would hold my breathe and not breathe in when she got too close while wearing it. It gave me a head ache. One day I became frustrated when she was hovering around me getting ready for a date with Dad. I said "Why do you wear that? What is it?"

She told me. Sometimes I think the cologne industry needs serious help. A few do pretty good.

I like Victoria Secrets perfume 'Love spell' and 'Kiss'. Body Mist.

purpleinopp said:What flowers have you found the scent of to be offensive?

Japanese privet (Ligustrum sinense)
Stapelia (carrion plant... so not a surprise)
Purple velvet (Gynura - whew, had to snip those off inside.)
One of the Wisterias (not sure which, most smell good)

Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana, smells like a really dirty men's restroom at a gross gas station. Yeah, sometimes you just can't wait for the ladies room - LOL!)

Little white Daffodils. (They smell good outside, but cut & brought inside, will have you looking for whatever's gone rotten. Maybe they change as they age?)

The following four flowers smell really bad:
1. THE CORPSE FLOWER
They have a putrid smell while blooming.
2. DRACUNCULUS VULGARIS
This flower is mostly known for its unforgettable scent of a decomposing carcass.
3. DEAD HORSE ARUM LILY
As the name suggests it smells of a dead horse which is very stinky.
4. WESTERN SKUNK CABBAGE
They have a decaying and rotten flesh smell. They have the ability to let off skunk-like odor to the entire surrounding. They can also be found in the dried specimens of the flower.

pirl said:They are all horrors and I've dealt with them first hand. Wandering roots are a pain!

One person posted, many years ago, that she detected a lemon scent to the Houttuynia. I have to wonder where she shops!

I thought the colored Houttuynia smelled like lemons but the green stuff smells bad. I'm trying to keep my Houttuynia and Ostrich Fern alive. They dont seem to do very well in a desert setting.

SpringGreenThumb said:

I thought the colored Houttuynia smelled like lemons but the green stuff smells bad. I'm trying to keep my Houttuynia and Ostrich Fern alive. They dont seem to do very well in a desert setting.

You picked the two plants that love water. Both can grow in bog conditions actually need a lot of moisture.

I don't like houttuynia or lily fragrances. Can't get any smell whatsoever from sarcococca, which others rave about. I find most junipers rank, although some of the newer cultivars are fresher smelling. I've never noticed the smell of skunk cabbage, which grows wild in my swampy areas, but perhaps I just stay far enough away from it. Hawthorn blooms stink for me. I have a lawn weed I just call stink-weed, not sure what it is - has a small purple flower with roundish leaves. Funny how different folks react differently to fragrances. My absolute favorite is honeysuckle wafting over the front porch in the early morning with a cup of coffee...yum.

I cannot detect a scent on my Dracunculus Vulgaris.

People tell me that paperwhites or heavy-scented lilies smell bad.

I tell them to get immediately out of my house.

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the Peony family. Unlike Roses, which can have a terrific fragrance or almost none at all, Peonies are like the Nursery rhyme about the little girl who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. And when she was good, she was very, very good, and when she was bad, she was horrid!

I approach a Peony blossom with some trepidation. It can look so, so beautiful - but how does it smell? I take a very tentative sniff. If it has a repulsive odour, I'm immediately disappointed. But if it has a lovely fragrance, I'm immediately delighted and go in closer for a better sample of its sumptuous perfume.

For the last two years in Castlegar there has been a Peony exhibition with 275 to 300 entries of amazing blossoms. I look forward to another one this year. It will be on June 9, 10 and 11th, at the Castlegar and District Recreation Centre. For more information, contact [email protected]

Festiva Maxima

Remembered another one. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium.) Smells like sweaty feet.

Jai_Ganesha said:People tell me that paperwhites or heavy-scented lilies smell bad. I tell them to get immediately out of my house.

Ha ha, Jai - I would not be welcome at your house. Both of those are too cloying for me. I'm also not keen on most orchid fragrances. Funny how scents strike different noses.

Normally I love scented plants, but the only one that I ever disliked was Freesias. I had to put them outside because they were way too strong for me.