Fragrant Orchids

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The Most Fragrant Flower Colors

Genders (1977) cited an interesting study completed at the end of the nineteenth century by a French authority on scented flowers. Of the more than 4000 plants examined, white and yellow flowers accounted for more than 60 percent of all fragrant flowers, and most of the remaining fragrant flowers were colored pale pink or purple. This study further found that the order of the strength of scent or perfume by color was "white, bluish white, pale pink, mauve-pink, pale yellow, yellow, and purple; plants bearing blue, orange, red, or brown flowers have a high degree of pigmentation and generate little or no scent." While many of these generalizations hold true for the orchid family, there are exceptions. One glaring example is Oncidium Sharry Baby, which has a very sweetly scented dark red flower (and various other color forms). But it is true that many of the most fragrant orchids are, indeed, white, pink, and pale yellow.

Related Plants Sometimes Have Similar Scents

Genders (1977) made another interesting observation, namely, that scents of the various genera are very much alike throughout the family. This is true, to some degree, with the orchid family. In appendix D, Orchids by Intensity of Fragrance, you will see that some of the species within the same genus do have similar fragrance descriptions.

Many people identify "orchid scent" as being the heavy sweet fragrance of the large cattleyas. This is primarily the popular belief because cattleyas were at one time the quintessential orchids sold at Mother's Day and for prom corsages for so many years. For numerous people, the only orchids they saw at florist shops were cattleyas. Very few other orchids were known or available. Now, orchids with seemingly endless varieties, shapes, colors, and scents are available from box stores to specialty orchid growers, so there is no longer any "typical orchid scent."

Fragrance Has Notes

In his humorous and very informative book, Orchid Fever, Eric Hansen (2000) relates how Katsuhiko Tokuda, a senior perfumer from the Japanese cosmetic company Shiseido, explains this concept.

You have to smell through the first thing that hits your nose because this is usually the lighter aspect, often a lemony point. It is the most volatile component. The different notes or aspects reveal themselves in stages, and you have to smell through them to get to the bottom of the fragrance puzzle. If you open a bottle of perfume, what is in the neck of the bottle is what hits you first. This is the top note. Then you put the fragrance on your skin and let it evaporate for about 10 seconds, which gives you the middle ones. The base notes are the least volatile and they come up last. Use the same criteria for evaluating and understanding the scent of orchids or any other sort of flower.

When Does an Orchid Smell Its Best?

Frequently, people are disappointed when they cannot detect the fragrance of an orchid that has a reputation for its sweet scent. There are many variables in this mystery of flower fragrance, and scent can be elusive.

Some orchids smell strongest for only a few hours in the morning while others, especially the night-pollinated varieties, only yield their alluring scent in the evening. If the flowers are normally fragrant in the day, they usually reach their peak of fragrance when it is warm and in the mid part of the day. Cold, gloomy days put a damper on fragrance. If it is very humid, scent tends to hang in the air longer.

For many orchids, the maturity of the flower has some bearing on the strength of the scent, and it takes a few days after they are open before their scent can be detected. If the air is still, the fragrance is stronger than if it is gusty. Immediately after a rainfall, the oils that emit the fragrance frequently have been diluted and are thus weaker. A plant in good heath also tends to produce a stronger scent.

There can be variation even with the same species; some selections are more fragrant than others. Also, there is much variation among people regarding their individual abilities to detect different scents. And what one person will describe as a heavenly aroma, another may find repugnant.

Why Aren't Flowers as Fragrant as They Used to Be?

It is a common lament among gardeners everywhere that flowers of today don't have the heady fragrances they used to have. Genders (1977) noted that "as color (pigment) is bred into flowers, scent is usually lost." This has happened quite a bit in many horticultural arenas. It has probably been most obvious with roses and some of the old-fashioned flowers that more recently had been primarily bred for larger flower size, a wider range of flower colors, compact plant habit, increased production and vigor, and insect and disease resistance. For the most part, orchids have faced the same plight. It has not been a conspiracy by plant breeders to banish fragrance, scent has just not been a high breeding or selection priority. As a result, the other sought-after attributes won out.

Times and garden trends are changing. Rose and other flower breeders and their customers, gardeners, are showing a new appreciation for fragrance, whether they grow in outside gardens and greenhouses or in sunrooms and on windowsills. It seems that many people today, gardeners or not, are attracted to a more holistic lifestyle where it is more natural for a flower to have a pleasant fragrance. Large flower size is taking a back seat to fragrance and other desirable qualities, such as ease of growing and flowering and compact growth habit. Some orchid growers now have separate listings or notations in their catalogs or on their Web site to show which orchids are particularly fragrant. Orchid breeders are looking with a new eye (or nose) at the importance of their new hybrids having this alluring feature.

The Function of Fragrance in Orchids

As lovely and as appreciated as some orchid fragrances are by our sense of smell, their reason for being fragrant has nothing to do with us. We are just one of the inconsequential (to the plant) beneficiaries. Fragrance is an important tool that plants use to insure their survival by attracting pollinators. Lee C. Soule (1990) identified some ways that fragrance serves this function for orchids. It attracts pollinators to an important food source because fragrance is associated with liquid nectar and pollen, both of which contain highly nutritious sugars sought out by bees, hummingbirds, flies, butterflies, and other creatures. Fragrance is also a powerful sex attractant to various pollinators. We do not need the birds and the bees to tell us about this feature, as this is what the perfume industry is all about.

For detailed information on the various intriguing pollination mechanisms in orchids, readers are referred to the classic study on this topic, Orchid Flowers: Their Pollination and Evolution (Van der Pijl and Dodson 1969).

Fragrance in Orchids Gets New Respect

Orchids have been formally judged for 150 years, but the primary criteria used to choose award winners has been flower size, substance, color, and shape. In 1989, the famous Japanese Prize International Orchid Show took a major step by becoming the first orchid show in the world to establish a fragrance competition for orchids. The judges were both perfume professionals and expert orchid growers. The Japanese have a long history of appreciating flowers purely for their scent. Some of the Asian Cymbidium species have been greatly revered for centuries for their delicate, sweet fragrance, so it seems logical that the Japanese would be pioneers in evaluating this quality in orchids.

From this show new standards for evaluating and classifying orchid scents were established. The Japanese divide orchids into two types, To-Yo-Ran (Asian cymbidiums) and Yo-Ran (Western orchids). Within each group, orchids were evaluated on four basic qualities of fragrance: intensity, gorgeousness, elegance, and freshness. What a job the judges must have had to have to quantify these qualities for all the entries!

The Greater New York Orchid Society Show of 1992 was the first show in the United States to judge orchid fragrance. Professional perfumers from Europe and Japan and American Orchid Society judges rubbed shoulders to select the orchids with the best fragrance. The show officials reported a great deal of interest from the public in this fragrance competition. Having such a prestigious orchid show place importance on fragrance demonstrates how scent in orchids is finally getting its due.

The Process of Judging Orchid Fragrance

The obstacles to judging orchid fragrance are numerous. Heading the list is the fact that scents are very personal experiences, so myriad opinions exist about what a particular orchid smells like and whether this scent is pleasant or not. Also, orchids emit their scent at different times of day or during the evening.

Linet Hamman, a director of Van Rooyen Orchids in South Africa and an accredited orchid judge, has been involved with orchid fragrance judging. Hamman (pers. comm.) states,

The science of smelling/sniffing is quite controversial. Some people believe that you only need to whiff the air above the flower (called "head-space" by perfumers). Others suggest a waving or sniffing action, while another school believes that you have to stick your nose right into it.

Hamman explains that the South African Orchid Society has come up with a practical, simple approach to evaluate orchid fragrance. It judges on these criteria:

• Intensity. How strong is the fragrance?
• Diffuseness. Can you smell the fragrance from a distance or only very close?
• Pleasantness. How pleasant (or unpleasant) is the fragrance?
• Elegance. How well rounded and "perfumistic" is the fragrance. Chemical notes and "thin" fragrances are marked down.

All characteristics are scored on a 1-to-10 basis except for pleasantness, which is scored 1 to 20. A maximum of 50 points is possible.

Get Your Nose into Shape

In her book The Essence of Paradise (1991), Tovah Martin proclaimed that among humans "olfactory proficiency has taken a nosedive in the last century. We don't exercise our nose enough. And, as a result, our sense of smell has suffered."

Jochen (Joe) Heydel, a retired senior perfumer with Symrise Company and a fragrance judge for the New York International Orchid Show, says it takes five to six years of intensive odor training before a professional perfumer's nose is up to snuff (J. Heydel, pers. comm.). By this time the perfumer should be able to recognize about 3000 odors. Heydel makes constant use of his olfactory skills in everyday life. He says he experiences life in three dimensions — sight, sound, and smell — and that his nose is "always on alert."

Heydel commented that all noses are not the same and that some people naturally have a higher odor perception than others. Since he made his living with his nose, he obviously was blessed with a super nose. But he suffers from Salmon Nose Envy. He said, "Just think about how sensitive the sense of smell is for a salmon. It finds its way from the ocean to its nesting place in freshwater, hundreds or more miles solely depending on its fabulous sense of smell!"

Although few of us are blessed with a nose that is as highly perceptive and trained as is Heydel's, we can all do our part to make fragrance and smelling a more important part of our lives. The orchids in this book give you the perfect opportunity to perform painless, sweatless, sweet calisthenics with your nose. What a delightful way to work your way back to the nose fitness with which you were born.

A Word of Caution

I wish I could say that I am 100 percent certain of all the fragrance descriptions, but I am not. This subject is not pure science; much of it is anecdotal and personal opinions. We are breaking new ground with this book and I expect and welcome feedback from readers who disagree or have other opinions as to the description or intensity of the fragrance.