We had one once and it was looking great hanging outside for the summer. It started to bud up. Now our neighbors on both sides had dogs. When it bloomed-we were blaming the neighbors' dogs for the poop smell! Then I wanted to see what the flowers smelled like on the purple passion and put my nose right up close-BIG MISTAKE!!! UGGHH!!

Now I look these things up before I get so bold. It said right in all the books we had, too. Oh well.

Joel

Denise

Alaina

I never had my purple passion flower smell badly. Maybe it depends on the variety? I must have had a male plant, as I did not have fruit. I believe you need two to pollinate.

The large feathery cactus type flower of the Mexican Pond Cactus (large, flat/serrated, thornless, leafed) is a beautiful 9" bud that opens after 10:00 PM. The blossom consists of layers of white feather like petals that are on a gooseneck and opens to about 12" wide. Picture a giant cactus flower. The pollen is very plentiful too. The biggest mistake is to be engrossed in it's beauty and take a close whiff. PHEW! Nasty stuff, makes you want to snort and exhale!

Another stinky candidate, is the ripe fruit of the gingko. The fruit are from the female trees and the outer pulp turns mushy and smelly when ripe. Inside, the hard seeds are edible football shaped fruit that are considered a delicacy in Chinese cooking. They're yellow, and chewy, nothing spectacular, but Ginkgo Biloba is thought to stimulate blood flow to the brain by dilating blood vessels, and decreasing platelet aggregation, besides being a powerful antioxidant. I have no idea if the nuts contain this, but it is the same tree. The Chinese and other western civilizations have used some of these as medicinals for centuries. Some people will eat anything for their health. What's in YOUR medicine cabinet? :)

Ginko nuts are *fantastic* (I"ve never had to harvest them in the vomit-smelling fruit, though, nor do I have room for such a huge tree, besides, I have only seen males for sale.)

Paperwhites... mum had these things in her house this spring and claimed that *my* *compost* we potted them in that stunk. NOPERS... I have dozens of seedlings with same compost. Smell wonderful. Finally I got her to realize it was those vile flowers.

And if it were earlier in the year, I'd have to second the Bradford pear. I hunted high and low for what had decayed in my yard when that smell started wafting. And there's at LEAST one in every small yard in my neighborhood. Woof.

Karen

Here's a page of different ones and the link below is of the ones like I saw.
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page4.html

Karen

Just found this forum today. Hello. :O)

Dana

I also have some beautiful dusty-pink yarrow with a yellow center that everyone agrees smells like dirty old socks! It is also, unfortunately, strongly-scented enough to WAFT.

One night he woke up in the middle of the night and the whole house reeked of rotting flesh. He roamed the house gagging of the smell and traced it to the voodoo lily. His friends called him soon after cursing him out for giving them such smelly plants.

He's a paramedic and says he's smelled decaying bodies before. He said the stench smells just like that!!! He planted the rest outside and the flies love 'em!

Last year, the first year we grew okra, not the blooms but seemingly the plant in general (maybe it was the variety we had) frequently smelled to us like urine.

We've forced paperwhites for several seasons now, indoors around Christmas, and I have to admit, this past year was the first time the "scent" crossed over in my nose's mind to "odor." I guess just like some things "grow on you," some things become more objectionable with familiarity. Or maybe the sense of smell in some people is always changing or evolving. Gonna have to nose-up to my cleyera for a test...

Identified as 'Voodoo lily' we gave this 'conversation plant' to a friend with no close neighbors and no sense of smell.

Lenore

I, however, call it As$ Flower.

I may be alone in my vote, but I personally cannot stand vast sprays of night blooming jasmine. They give me a sick headache. A little jasmine goes a long way. Please, if you want this plant in your yard, do not plant it outside your neighbor's bedroom window! :-(

But my personal love-hate relationship is with a Stapelia Gigantea I inherited from my mom when she passed away, which I have propagated into 4 plants. Each year one of them grows a hairy flower that's 14 inches from point to opposite point, and smells like week-old roadkill soaked in ammonia. Right now, there's a half-grown pod preparing to drive me out of the house soon.

A few years a go, I was ready to go on a 2-week vacation, but one of the plants had developed a pod the size of my fist, ready to pop at any time. I took it in to the office and asked some co-workers to keep it watered. My cube-neighbor immediately knew what it was and asked "Why did you bring that in here?!?" A short while later, she shouted over the cube wall, "I can smell that thing already! It's like... spoiled milk!" But the flower hadn't opened yet. I'd had a big bowl of baked beans the night before, and I just couldn't help it...

I have a neighbor who grows Stargazer lillies and others. He is always asking me to smell them. He is always sniffing them. So to be polite I just take a deep breath and hold it before I lean over near them and say "Mmmmm. Nice." He's got some Irisis that he insisted smelled like 'grape soda pop' and that I just HAD to sniff them. Well I took a deep whiff and to me they smelled like a plastic bread bag melting on a hot toaster. (Don't ask me how I know what that smells like). lol.

I had another neighbor who pulled a trick on me by getting me to smell a 'really nice flower she had growing in her yard'. While I was clinging to her trellis to keep from throwing up on her hostas she laughingly said "Smells like litter box right?" We get along OK - I don't think she anticipated that I would have such a strong reaction to "eau d' litter box" flowers.

I hate the smell of roses. All of them make me sick. Mums, marigolds, daisies, flowering bushes, tulips too. Now that I think about it I'm surpirsed I even took up gardening. Most of my garden is grown for it's ornamental foliage though.

While were in this thread; Does anyone really appreciate restaurants that have cut flowers or potted flowers on the table? The usually use mums. Ooooph. The only thing worse is those flower scented candles people put on their dinner table. Even the "food scented" ones like vanilla, cinnamon, coffee, pumpkin or apple. Yech. Ruins the whole meal.

Speaking of society garlic have you ever been to that famous garden by santa monica? They have oodles of it surrounding a water garden- it totally ruins it. Peeyou! and I'm sure they spent millions on the place to be aesthetically pleasing.....

Karen

I got a bulb at the Philadelphia Flower Show some years back. I potted it up, and when it began to form a spathe, my husband took it to his office as a kind of show and tell thing. We'd been forewarned about the smell, but we didn't appreciate just how bad it was going to be.

Anyway, my husband left it in the office over the weekend, and during that time it went into full flower. The people who came in a bit earlier than he did the following Monday were appalled, and spent some time searching for what they thought must be a dead cat or other critter disintegrating somewhere under a desk or in a corner.

I planted some more bulbs in my garden, for their unusual and dramatic (and fragrance-free) foliage. They came up several years in a row in my Zone 6 garden, but last winter's deep freezes finally did them in.

Voodoo lily - a plant of distinkshun.

cranebill

ps:by the way i am new here,so,hi

I have tons of skunk cabbage in my wetland... and normally the smell doesn't bother me. But when you have several hundred of them blooming at once... well it can get a bit wiffy.

I like the scent of stargazer lilies... but not in the house. Someone bought be a bouquet with two of them in it and I had to banish it to the bathroom so I could sleep at night. Another flower too pungent (but otherwise yummy) for indoors is lily of the valley. One sprig will smell up the whole house! I like the smell, but I don't want to not be able to smell anything else!

Then I bought an old house with a beautiful Dragon Arum planted right oursite the Kitchen/sunroom door! I believe it is the closest cousin to the voodoo Lilly that others describe - but this one leafs out first, then flowers - OH MY - and then the leaves flop, and green to orange when ripe seed heads linger. I took corms to a Swap this weekend - and counselled each gardener on where NOT to situate this showy stinker.

Am wondering if anyone has kept Dragon Arum foliage
going thru summer by cutting emerging flower stalks?
Worth a try for that tropical foliage, IMO. (yes, it's the Dracunculus family) I can do without the huge flies the flowers draw, too!

Wild Honeysuckle Shrubs - their in full bloom in my area now and the sweet smell is sickening.

Bridal Wreath Spirea - Instant sinus swelling.

And I like Paperwhites - only a few early on.

Stargazers - their fragrance is reminds me of romantic nights.

Ginkgo Fruit - never had the opportunity to smell it, but I've heard it smells like rancid butter or even vomit (yuck). BTW -I'm about to plant a few Ginkgos around my property - I've always admired the tree and now that I have a big lot, I can plant a few. Hopefully some will be female, though I don't know at what age they start having sex.

Ken

lilacs are great but overwhelming near windows, doors or next to heavily travelled walks etc. they should be in a corner, or out near the open away from walks and windows allowing fragrance to waft subtly. in a house, place 1-3 bunches off on a side table, ornamental table, large table, or mantle, NOT right on a small dining area or in a close room. my mother who loved them and the color lilac passed away this january...