easy - long blooming - scented
 

Hi everyone.
I'm hoping to get some advice on fragrant orchids and which varieties I should consider.

I know there are lots of different scents that appeal to some and less to others which makes choosing the right one tricky - they tend to be a bit pricier and harder to find - especially ready to flower ones.

Some only produce one flower and bloom for a month - others I presume can bloom for months and rebloom to produce a lot of smell throughout the year.

I have some vanda's already and can produce any climate needed.

So preferably looking for a small, easy grower that produces people's favourite scents which blooms for a long time when it does.

I have a phal Bellina x violacea and know there are some great crosses of these varieties including the Dragon tree eagle which is on my wish list but more interested in varieties not related to those parents at the moment.

I like P. venosa - it smells like Frazzles

Opinions vary not just on scent, but ease of care. I find Cattleya nobilior to be easy to grow, and my var amaliae has a wonderful and powerful fragrance from flowers that last a month or more. But many will tell you nobilior is among the more difficult species to grow.

Do you like chocolate?

If so, Oncidium Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' AM/AOS needs to be on your list.

These grow well and have fragrance in my care:

Cymb. Golden Elf
Onc. Twinkle Fragrance Fantasy
Brassovola nodosa
Vanda coerulea
Zygos... several, can't remember names at the moment, but lots of fragrant Zygos

Used to grow and fragrant:
Maxillaria tenuifolia
Miltoniopsis (a species that starts with letter "s", name escapes me at the moment)

And as Subrosa says... "easy care" is a pretty relative term to the grower. Something that grows like a weed for you might not like my culture.

Hello All,

This is a fun question for me to try to answer because I usually only add an orchid to my collection if it is intensely and nicely fragrant. Because of this, I have a lot of opinions on orchid fragrance. Some people may prefer different scents so I will try to describe my favorites well so it is clear what exactly they smell like. I apologize if this turns into an essay.

Brassavola Grand Stars (and Grand Stars x nodosa)
This is probably my favorite scented orchid. It is very hard to describe the scent of this orchid. Although the orchid is mostly nodosa in its parentage, it does not smell at all like the nodosa. Because this orchid lacks the fragrance of the nodosa, I am assuming the subulifolia is passing the fragrance down. It is a sort of soapy-sweet smell but that doesn’t do it justice. It is very “elusive”. The best way to describe it would be the best laundry detergent ever created mixed with Linden tree blossoms. It is only fragrant at night. The plant is compact and blooms for weeks and is a very easy grower. Somehow, it also manages to smell like a summer night near the shore in New York (in a good way).

Encyclia radiata
Encyclia radiata is extremely easy to grow, is compact, and is constantly blooming and in spike. It smells like milk and honey, coconut cream, white chocolate, and a good perfume combined. It is strongly fragrant and can fill a space that is outdoors. The flowers are also quite interesting to look at.

Cattlychea Siam Jade
This very compact Cattleya smells like the radiata plus a nice orange blossom smell. It has green flowers which makes it especially interesting. It is probably my second favorite orchid scent. It is bifoliate so be mindful of when to repot it.

Cattleya Siamese Doll Kiwi
Very similar to Siam jade except it has purple spots and a citrusy lemon fragrance.

Phal violecea “Sumatrana”
I have smelled many violeceas but this is the nicest. It smells exactly like magnolia stellate/star magnolias.

Miltoniopsis Hawaiian Punch
Like most miltoniopsis, it is fragrant of roses however, this one is very strong and also has a gardenia like fragrance in addition to the rose smell.

Dendrobium Angel Baby and Dendrobium Nobile hybrids in general
Dendrobiums nobiles usually have a candy necklace and honey smell to me. Angel baby is very compact and creates many keikis. It also smells better than any other nobile I have owned. Another good compact dendrobium hybrid is Hamana Lake.

Most Angraecum orchids
All angraecoids seem to be pleasantly fragrant but since you are looking for a compact grower, I would recommend the Magdalenae. Angraecum magndalenae is probably the most fragrant and easy to care for angraecum.

Zygopetalums
Almost all Zygos are fragrant. There seem to be two different categories of Zygo fragrance: earthy like the green walnut fruit from the black walnut tree, or sweet like hyacinth. I recommend Zygopetalum Blue Blazes as I find it to be the easiest, longest blooming Zygo. I find that Blue Blazes also has the nicest fragrance but Advance Australia is also good. Both are in the hyacinth category. Galeopetalum Starburst parkside is good also, but it is in the walnut category.

Rhyncholaelia Glauca
This one is very easy to care for and stays compact. The flowers are very large and showy. It is fragrant at night and smells like grand stars with a touch of lemon.

Phal. Liu’s berry
It smells like mild gardenia. It is a small Phal that doesn’t require any different care from any other phal.

Dendrobium Anosmum
This smells like rhubarb and strawberries. This one is a pendant grower though.

Oncidium Twinkle
I would recommend this one highly, it is very compact and smells strongly of vanilla wafers.

Vanda/Neofinetia Falcata
These compact orchids have a good fragrance that is like a sweet perfume.

Others that are not my favorite, but are still very fragrant

Dendrobium auriculatum
Smells like common jasmine.

Lycaste Aromatica
This one is interesting, but it smells too much like take-out food to me.

Oncidium Sharry Baby
It smells like chocolate. I think that everyone should have one of these, though they get quite large and the spikes are very tall.

Brassavola nodosa
This one is a classic. It smells like a bit too much like toothpaste to me though. Very easy and compact.

Max tenuifolia
It is a compact orchid that smells exactly like fresh coconut. Very easy to care for.
Orchids I have and have heard were fragrant, but have never bloomed myself.

Cattleya walkeriana
This compact cattleya species is supposed to smell like cinnamon. I have never gotten mine to bloom so I am not sure but everyone who has one of these raves about it.

Trichopilias
These have beautiful flowers that smell potently of roses. They are extremely compact. They grow like oncidiums that never want to dry out.

Cycnodes Wine Delight
This is supposed to smell like cherry cough syrup. Some people like the fragrance, some people say it is too strong.

I don’t know much about these but everyone who owns them tells me they smell amazing.

Miltoniopsis Pink Lemonade
Iwanagara apple blossom
Brassavola cucullata

Haraella retrocalla - A really small mini - but fragrance bigger than the plant, blooms successively on each inflorescence and blooms several times a year. A perfect terrarium plant, very forgiving of a variety of conditions (Can grow warm, cool, anything in between)

Also consider Cymbidium ensifolium or Cym. sinense - these Chinese species stay quite compact, bloom on small plants, are very fragrant. Like to be on the intermediate side, don't need, or want a cool-down. Need less light than their bigger relatives. Others of the Chinese species also stay compact, but are more difficult to grow. Hybrids with this group (like Cym Golden Elf) are compact for Cymbidiums, but not small.

Most of the Catasetinae are fragrant, but most aren't compact. Consider Clowesia Rebecca Northen - early spring bloomer (before the leaves emerge), compact, smells a bit like grapefruit.

Sedirea japonica - compact Vandaceous species, very fragrant. Not picky about temperature, ntermediate is ideal but can grow cooler too. (Genus is "Aerides" spelled backwards... I think it's now Vanda)

wow, thank you for all your input - this is going to keep me busy checking them all out!

BrassavolaStars, your list is very good. Really appreciate the detailed scents and which varieties are your favourites.
Seem to be a few good ones for me to choose from.

I am quite picky and some of them look too much like tropical grasses. :rofl:

Zygopetalums - to me waste of space. I might change my mind as I haven't had them long but they certainly don't fill a room and the flowers did not last long.

I am surprised the Aerides houlletiana hasn't been mentioned? I know it is not small... But does anyone have one growing?

edit: what is a pendant grower?

A pendant growth habit is when a plant grows horizontally to the edge of its container and then hangs down.

Actually, it's Phalaenopsis japonica -- unless it's been changed again. :biggrin: Mine hasn't bloomed yet, but I'm hoping for that fragrance I've heard about.

I have a Phal. Liu's berry -- mentioned by BrassavolaStars above -- and mine is decidedly not fragrant, not that I've ever detected. I guess there could be differences in cultivars or indeed in growing conditions, though.