My beallara lunatic fringe Ike's yikes STINKS!! What to do about the smell?

[Mandy2705]

Are you guys saying that the Sharry baby's fragrance evolves to an unpleasant one towards the end? Oh no!

[Romeomffn]

Since everyone has their own sensitivities and preferences in terms of smells, someone should come up with an online version of a "Scratch and Sniff" for orchids. Wouldn't that be just great. Should come with pics, culture, and scent.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

Yes, some orchids do smell differently as time progresses.

Indeed. Furthermore, I've noticed with some plants like some Hoya, that the fragrance can even change over the course of the day -- having a very different scent in the evening than at midday.

Most orchids I have encountered seem to be most fragrant when it is warm and sunny. (Night fragrant plants like the Angraecum genus are obvious, notable exceptions.)

I would suggest first try keeping the orchid in a cooler, less brightly lit locale whilst is in bloom. That may help. (Needless to say, you will have to adjust its watering accordingly for the duration of its time in said cooler & dimmer spot.)

[astrid]

Originally Posted by Paul

Indeed. Furthermore, I've noticed with some plants like some Hoya, that the fragrance can even change over the course of the day -- having a very different scent in the evening than at midday.

Most orchids I have encountered seem to be most fragrant when it is warm and sunny. (Night fragrant plants like the Angraecum genus are obvious, notable exceptions.)

I would suggest first try keeping the orchid in a cooler, less brightly lit locale whilst is in bloom. That may help. (Needless to say, you will have to adjust its watering accordingly for the duration of its time in said cooler & dimmer spot.)

Eeeeeew Hoya smells... Gosh I always wanted a Hoya, then I stayed in a lady's place in new z aland and she had s big long Hoya vine. I got to see it flower and it was so pretty but yuck!! I thought there was a wood varnish or something in the room that smelled so bad, but it was the Hoya!!
To me it smelled wooden, piney, and had kind of a sharp gritty note of smell mixed in... Suffice it to say that changed my mind on ever having Hoyas. This one had white velvety star blossoms, btw.

---------- Post added at 12:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Leafmite

Yes, some orchids do smell differently as time progresses.
Sorry you ended up with one you do not like. As others mentioned, you could try the lower light trick. I usually give away orchids pretty quickly once I lose in interest in them but the gift aspect makes that rather difficult.

I talked with my boyfriend and he said it was fine. He said, "well if you got me a model (lotr miniature figure that he paints) and it had something wrong, I would trade it for a different one, too!!" What a sweet boy he is!!

So I sold it to someone on my university campus today and they were really happy about it. Win-win

---------- Post added at 12:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:51 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Romeomffn

Since everyone has their own sensitivities and preferences in terms of smells, someone should come up with an online version of a "Scratch and Sniff" for orchids. Wouldn't that be just great. Should come with pics, culture, and scent.

That's why I love the book by Roman Kaiser so much on orchid scent compositions. I would love to emulate his research for all different orchids and make a business that emulates floral smells for people!!

I wish, though, as I mentioned in another post, that humans in general had better scent description ability. We all get stuck on just "good" or "bad", but scent is as rich and diverse as flavor, color, and texture... I wish we were all in the habit of describing scents well!!

[Roey.P.]

Did yoy knew?❔😉
Actually the flower of almost any plant is deemed to go by this rule there are three degrees to flowers; number, size&color and smell. While vendors try to achieve more of the first two the smell represent becoming less sense in the flower which usually makes phalaenopsis and orchid scent less or smell bad.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by astrid

Eeeeeew Hoya smells... Gosh I always wanted a Hoya, then I stayed in a lady's place in new z aland and she had s big long Hoya vine. I got to see it flower and it was so pretty but yuck!! I thought there was a wood varnish or something in the room that smelled so bad, but it was the Hoya!!!

But again you can no more judge all Hoya by the scent of one than you can judge all orchids after having sniffed one orchid. Different Hoya species and hybrids often have different scents.

Originally Posted by astrid

I wish, though, as I mentioned in another post, that humans in general had better scent description ability. We all get stuck on just "good" or "bad", but scent is as rich and diverse as flavor, color, and texture... I wish we were all in the habit of describing scents well!!

That might not be as useful as you would think. What one person thinks of a fragrance or even how it smells to them can be radically different than for another person. I had a Bulbo at one time whose fragrance reminded my sister and me of melon. I took it to work to show a coworker who was an orchid fan. To her it didn't smell anything like melon, nor could she put a name to the scent ... although she did say it was definitely not unpleasant. However, another coworker who sniffed the flowers just minutes later said it reeked of fish. I proceeded to get very different reactions and scent identifiers from 5 different people.