Orchids with a strong scent

[SaraJean]

I’m not sure if anyone has posted this one yet, but I finally bloomed my Pteroceras semiteretifolium and my goodness that has a lovely (and strong!!) fragrance! It reminds me of warm honey, tulips and tea roses. The hubby smells a bit of jasmine, I couldn’t detect that but he has a better nose than I, lol

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by SaraJean

...The hubby smells a bit of jasmine,...l

Maybe it's the cologne he's wearing.

LOL

[Orchidwizard]

Originally Posted by SaraJean

I’m not sure if anyone has posted this one yet, but I finally bloomed my Pteroceras semiteretifolium and my goodness that has a lovely (and strong!!) fragrance! It reminds me of warm honey, tulips and tea roses. The hubby smells a bit of jasmine, I couldn’t detect that but he has a better nose than I, lol

I have a few small flowers that have a strong fragrance but I have been fooled before too, a strong fragrance to me is a fragrance that can be detected at 6 meter + away from the flower. A medium fragrance can fill a room and a weak fragrance is only noticeable when up close.

I am always looking for new fragrances but looking at the size of the flower and the fact that I have been fooled too many times I am guessing it is a fragrance that can only be detected up close or does it literally fill a room?

Sry about the stupid sounding question but I am not going to fall for another "strong fragrance" mini that can barely fill a shoebox with its scent If I am wrong it sounds like a lovely addition but I am hoping one day they will introduce a smell intensity chart, so 1 would be dendrobium nobiles for example, a phalaenopsis Bellina would be a 6 and 10 would be the most intense flowers.

So thx for sharing SaraJean but any chance you could fit the intensity of a Pteroceras semiteretifolium onto my scale of 1-10?

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by stephen monkhouse

Hi I am Stephen Monkhouse a Zygopetalum Breeder with 40 plus years in developing the new look Zygopetalum we see today. I started as Adelaide Orchids in Australia and now trading as Stephen Monkhouse Orchids. So if you are experiencing any problems maybe I can help you.

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

There is an Introductions forum for people to introduce themselves. From the left yellow menu select Forums, then Introductions - Break the Ice. Click on the New Thread button near the upper left. People are far more likely to see your message there than in this old thread.

[Fredmax]

Unsure if it's been mentioned, but Den Chryseum is heavenly I wish I could bottle it.

[Dr. Dave 4u]

I'm trying to build up a collection of fragrant orchids and so far my winners are

You cannot go wrong with this one-
Dendrobium Kingianum - sweet nice perfume -EASY ORCHID grows like crazy for me, all sorts of medium including water culture( for half a year or so then successful in bark)


Oncidium Sharry Baby - makes my whole room smell like chocolate ...yum!

Cattleya - Yillage chief rose and Pot dick smith both nice perfume fragrance

I have more new ones but no blooms yet....

[katsucats]

My Oncidium hastabilum flowered shortly after it arrived here. I could smell it more than 6ft away in the mornings, smells like cake icing. Delicious. The Oncidium leucochilum, which I had thought would be more fragrant, turned out to be disappointing (it was faintly sour candy).

So far a number of Oncidiums have made it up to my favorite scents list, including ornithorhynchum and Sharry Baby.

Besides that, the Encyclia cordigera (white/pink mix), I've heard it smells like tea roses. It might. To me, it smells like a matcha milk tea, with a slight nuttiness from the roasting of tea leaves, which is probably also the same note causing some to identify it as chocolate. I was also able to smell that across the room when it was in bright light. That was quite complex and intoxicating.

Another recent standout would be Epidendrum nocturnum, which smells exactly like Tiger Balm to me -- if anyone ever did scraping with a chiropractor, or has Asian parents. Unfortunately, it's kind of inconsistent. On some nights, I could smell it 6ft away. Others, I'd have to lean in.

[Leafmite]

Tiger balm fragrance. Love it. I had given away my Cync. Wine Delight 'Jem' because I was going to concentrate on miniature orchids but, not long ago, I had to have another. Somehow that fragrance, exactly like my childhood cough syrup, intrigues me.

[katsucats]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

Tiger balm fragrance. Love it. I had given away my Cync. Wine Delight 'Jem' because I was going to concentrate on miniature orchids but, not long ago, I had to have another. Somehow that fragrance, exactly like my childhood cough syrup, intrigues me.

I loved Wine Delight. When my first one died, I searched high and low for a replacement and bought 2. If my memory serves me correctly, it smelled like some kind of sour/sweet grape or cherry candy (although nose memory is usually not very accurate). More recently, I experienced a Lycaste cruenta that had a similar scent. Probably not exactly the same, but the same dominant note, the sour/sweet, borderline candy or medicinal smell. Both could be smelled at a distance, although I feel like Wine Delight wafted further. That could just be nostalgia though.

---------- Post added at 11:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:27 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Orchidwizard

Sry about the stupid sounding question but I am not going to fall for another "strong fragrance" mini that can barely fill a shoebox with its scent If I am wrong it sounds like a lovely addition but I am hoping one day they will introduce a smell intensity chart, so 1 would be dendrobium nobiles for example, a phalaenopsis Bellina would be a 6 and 10 would be the most intense flowers.

I'd like to echo this post. There seems to be two conflicting definitions of fragrance strength. I've heard it used as distinctness or intensity up close, versus how far it wafts. I'm also interested in plants that are overpowering and I could smell across the room. In my experience with a Phal. violacaea hybrid, although I could enjoy it from a distance, it did not waft across the room the same way a Sharry Baby or maybe Encyclia radiata would have. A lot of people describe bellina as extremely fragrant. If my experience is any indication, I don't think it quite hits that mark (although it's still very enjoyable). Maybe having a larger plant with more blooms would affect it though.

I have no experience with Dendrobium nobiles, but I did have a Burr. Nelly Isler 'Swiss Beauty' that was described as extremely fragrant, that didn't waft. Like, at all. Though as I've seen it described, it did smell like opening a packet of sugar. It could be that Norman mislabeled the plant, which wouldn't be the first time, so I'd snatch one if I could find it from another source to compare.

Most people think smell is subjective, which I think it is, but there is also an objective component in the molecules being carried across air. I think part of the subjectivity is due to a lack of common vocabulary to describe scents, so we do our best to approximate it with experience with other things that we think other people might connect with. I do wish we had a more specific list of fragrances, but the perceived subjectivity probably makes most people not interested.

I would be interested in:

• What does it smell like? Top, heart, base? (Some orchid fragrances are more full-bodied and layered, like Stanhopeas as opposed to Oncidiums)
• Perceived intensity-distance curve.
• Fragrance progression from opening to wilt. Some flowers take some time before it's fragrant, and the scent might appreciate or degrade over time.
• Strongest in... morning, bright light, night, warmth?
• Complexity or novelty? Is it a single note or does it open up? Does it smell like a generic sweetness (Phal. violacaea in my opinion), or a unique, high-end bouquet (Stanhopea wardii)?

[DirtyCoconuts]

remember smell is deeply personal. the air temp and humidity, ones nasal passages and olfactory nerve are even unique as scent receptors are not always assigned to nerve connections until you actually smell something so the path of one's life can alter the way they smell something compared to the way i might


that said, they are minor differences in the smell but can be major differences in the intensity of the smell. I have a few Grand duke jasmines and they are massive scent flowers but i have a neighbor who claims they are barely scented.