Best smelling orchid?
 

I love fragrant orchids. I love how they can full a room with the smell of fresh flowers.

What are some of your Favorite fragrant orchids that can be used as air fresheners for your home?

I love my Sherry baby and my Encyclia Cordigera.

My favorites are the ones that fill up an entire room :) I have had my Sharry baby bloom but it only had two flowers, so at the moment that ones doesn't make the list. Until it blooms next time, I am sure it will. So my picks are maxillaria ten. filled my entire bedroom with its lovely coconut scent. Then my den. (speciosum-gracilicaule)-(specious-kingianum) hybrid filled my entire kitchen and living room every morning with its rich, sweet honey scent, ooo it was fantastic. My experience with fragrant orchids isn't too extensive so this list will change I am sure with time :)

Cattleya walkeriana is powerful and smells wonderful in my opinion.
Lots of Oncidiums are fragrant, my Jungle Monarch smells like lilac while Onc. maculatum smells like bananas and pineapples to me.
A good Phal. schilleriana has a deep, rosy floral fragrance that carries.
Zygopetalums have a hyacinth-like scent, also powerful.
There are so many more!

I collect fragrant plants so most of my orchids are fragrant. Much of the time, when the orchids turn out not to be fragrant, they go (there are a few exceptions).

Angraecum Magdalenae. It is fragrant both day and night (stronger at night) and the fragrance is perfectly lovely. The flowers last over a month. Many Angraecums are wonderfully fragrant at night.
Brassavola Little Stars “Yasuji Takaeki' The perfume is wonderful at night and in the early morning. Powerful but not sickingly so.
Brassavola nodosa. Make certain it is a fragrant clone. Some of the ones being sold are bred just for the flowers and the fragrance is missing. For an orchid known for the fragrance...quite disappointing.
Potinara Burana Beauty 'Burana' HCC/AOS This is a winner. Blooms multiple times a year and has a very nice fragrance. Is small and doesn't take up much space. Flowers are cute.
Cattleya Mini Purple 'Blue Hawaii' This is a wonderful primary hybrid of C. walkeriana. Very nice fragrance. I use the flower as my avatar as it is my favorite Cattleya.
Burrageara Nelly Isler 'Swiss Beauty' Bright red flowers, Tropicana rose fragrance that fills an entire room in the morning.
Phalaenopsis bellina Amazing and powerful, beautiful fragrance. I am not all that fond of Phals but this is one worth having. I also have the violacea but haven't had it bloom, yet.
Neofinetia falcata Lovely night fragrance and the right clone can perfume an entire room with just four flowers (the one that does that happens to be a NoID so I can't really give you an accurate name)
Sievekingia fimbriata Blooms don't last long but it has a nice fragrance and does great in shade if you don't have much light. Once it gets large enough, it can bloom often. It is a change of pace if you want something a little different.

I have always loved my Zygopetalum! And it is in bloom now with its wonderful scent:biggrin:

My favorite is Phal. Violacea. It smells like fruit loops.

Brassavola tuberculata is my favorite so far.

If there was an orchid that smells like Aloysia citrodora, I would buy dozens of them :-)

Thats a lot to pick from. What one is your Fav?

My favorites are my Nelly Isler orchid, and I love the Iwanagara Apple Blossom.

The Nelly Isler smells like a musky lemon fragrance, and the Iwanagara smells like strawberry milk to me.

I also love my NOID pink miltoniopsis that smells like rosy perfume and goodness... oh man it's too great!

Whichever is in bloom. Just kidding. I'd have to say that my favorite is probably the Angraecum mag. The amazing fragrance was every day and night for over a month.

My favorites are my Max. tenufolia and a Blc (Mello Vista x Goldenzelle) x George King 'Southern Cross' that was one of my first orchids that my mother brought back from Carter and Holmes in SC as a seedling. It smells like lily of the valley and it is just right...not too powerful but just enough that when you get a whiff of it it makes you smile a whole lot.

Not sure if it has been mentioned...
Phal. lueddemanniana PLUS this phal makes several branching spikes. Many blooms, and eventually Keikis! This one fills the whole room. I have P. luedddemanniana 'Woodlawn'
Phal. Krull's Red Hot x violacea 'Dark Blue' This is my favorite fragrance of a phal. It's smell "warm" sweet+spicy .. I can catch a whiff of cinnamon sometimes. Plus each flower lasts over 7 weeks, for me.

My Aerangis fastuosa is blooming, but the scent isn't strong. Once close, it smells like citrus, sweet, and tiger balm? I haven't checked the A. luteo-alba yet.

Many orchids are fragrant, but not strong enough to fill up a room. Some are strong enough to be sensed by being near it, and most of them you have to get right up to it to smell them.

My favorite fragrant orchids that can fill up a room:

Miltoniopsis (some are not scented and some are midly scented, but when you get a good one, then you will know what I mean)
Fragrance can start quite early in the morning but the climax is around midday.
The thing about this plant is that it needs to have specific environmental cues to have the best (strongest) scent. Bright sunny day but not too hot.
So a bit panicky but worth it and it's by far the best thing I have ever smelled!!!

Brassavola nodosa and certain hybrids of it.
These are fragrant at night, starting early evening and reaching the max intensity around midnight.

Neofinetia. Starts to emit fragrance at dusk and continue on till early morning.

Question for NYOrchidman
 

Hi NY,

I am down in Florida and have an Andrea West HOF Milt budding now. I am however very limited to Milt stock down here...Matsui does not even deal to Trader Joe's down here as we are pretty much out of the suitable climate come summer. I am mainly driven by fragrance and paid dearly last year for a Maui Mist Golden Gate that had zero fragrance. What, in your experience brought the most amazing fragrance for Milts....I hear whites like Herr Alexandre? Not having an ability to sniff before purchasing is very frustrating...I am very ready to fly up to NY and hit the shops and have one fly on my lap back to FL...thanks in advance...Blu

My favorites so far with a powerful scent are; Dendrobium kingianum ( scent can fill a small room). Neofinita falcata ( smells mmm mmm mmm good!! at night. Scent can fill a small room), Oncidium twinkle, and my most recent discovery, rhynchostylis retusa! Smells very sweet. I have it hanging above my sink and when I do the dishes in the morning. I get wiffs of its sweet perfume!!
And last but not least and possibley my all time favorite scent is the dendrobium micro-chip. Smells like earl grey tea and vanilla to me. LOVE LOVE LOVE💗

I'm with Plodde, Dendrobium kingianum, (mine is the alba variety), fills the house with scent for up to a month each spring; I'm even allowed to bring it in from the greenhouse for the duration...

Not to forget Bifrenaria harrisoniae and Jumellea sagittata. Stanhopeas like grandiflora are addictive, and I love Anguloa clowesii.

Most of Miltoniopsis I buy are NOID, but I don't care because I buy them in bloom and then toss. lol
I did grow them for a while though in the past. also I do buy named clones as well.

Now, these plants can vary a lot among seed grown hybrids, so I can't say for sure.

I have bought pretty much any color combo available out there (white, white with plum color, red, pink, yellow, and multiple color, waterfall...you name it, I've had it all!!!) and the fragrance has nothing to do with color.
It is totally up to individual plants. Most are very fragrant and some just don't have it.

Now, with the one that are fragrant, they won't be fragrant if kept too warm as I mentioned in my earlier post.

Now, I see Miltoniopsis offered at one particular store on the midtown west. So fly up here now and buy them before too late. :lol:

They don't do well in the heat, hence they are not grown much in the south I guess.

Thanks NYCOrchidman
 

Believe it or not they grow like weeds down here in Florida and a gentleman in Upstate NY...I believe he has Select Orchids that deals strictly with Miltoniopsis...has his Mom growing them in Fort Myers if you could believe it. The only thing is about now they come in when night temps don't fall below 70 degrees and spend the summers in the AC like the rest of us. During Fall, Winter, and Spring they actually thrive down here. My yellow Andrea West is about to pop and am hoping for fragrance from it. Thanks again.