If you desire fragrant orchids you should find them in bloom and smell them directly.
The list given is too vague and will result in your buying plants that are a disappointment.
The list included Brassia, of which I raise hundreds and have never had one with a scent I could detect. Admittedly my sense of smell is not great, but others may be the same. Nobile Dendrobium are listed but I again raise hundreds and would not sell them as a fragrant orchid.
A good example of fragrant orchids is the most famous Onc. Sharry Baby, the chocolate orchid. It normally it has a very strong Hershey bar chocolate scent. I have 100 in bloom and the fragrance is almost missing. You have to stick your face in the plant to smell it. Normally you would be hit with scent when you walk into the shadehouse. These are large plants that bloom twice a year and when they bloom again in the winter the same plants will have a very strong scent. The heat of the summer is reducing the scent.
Orchids put out scent to attract insets to pollinate themselves. If the weather is not right for the insects to be on the prowl (like damp rainy days, summer heat, winter cold, almost anything for at least one orchid) the orchid does not waste its perfume.
It is also not uncommon for an orchid to have no scent one year and then be very fragrant the next.
Young orchids blooming for the first or second time often have no scent on a plant that is famously fragrant.
Back to my original suggestion to find them in bloom and smell them. Then do not be disappointed the next year if it skips a year from having its environment changed.
Last edited by orchidsamore; 06-29-2010 at 06:51 AM..
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