Oh and what does chinese rice flower smell like? and primroses?

The aglaia smells of lemon. Michelia champaca you can find in the faq. Sweet olive, I'm guessing you mean the osmanthus fragrans in particular, smells of apricot. The dwarf marine heliotrope I had was very strongly scented of cherry. Primroses has been answered if you look below.

My white heliotrope smells like vanilla, my chinese flowering rice plant smells like a very soft pretty perfume, I can only smell it when it's sunny outside.
champaca (Michelia Alba) smells very strong, inbetween a gardenia and strong jasmine.... very exotic smell. I have one by my bedside and it smells so pretty. Pikake is Arabian jasmine or Sambac, smells inbetween orange blossom and honeysuckle. This is to my nose anyway!

Thank you angel smell...... I have heard that magnolias smell like lemon........ your descriptions are good angelsmell...... I think I can sometimes try to describe flower scents....... sweet pea for example is sweet with a bit of honey and a bit of fruit and a touch of spice.

Flower: I forgot to mention the sweet Olive.... it is the best I just love it, I go out on my patio and front porch and have to smell it every time.. it is the most beautiful sweet scent of apricots, I have 4 that are blooming right now and it's so different from any other plant I ever smelled, I ordered a synthetic oil on ebay and put it all over my house on flat cotton wipes, I even put it in the vents of my heater, it is really nice.
I have 4 michelia figos that all have buds on them, they smell like very sweet ripe bananas. I also love the smell of honeysuckle, I bought a couple six packs of ground cover honeysuckle and planted them in hanging pots near my patio door, I think it will be a wonderful waft when they all come into bloom. I can hardly wait to smell them, this is my first season with all my fragrant plants. If your just getting started on fragrant plants be careful it's very very addicting but fun!!!! My other most favorite is brugmansia (Angel Trumpet), they are absolutely THE BEST! The differnt colors vary in fragrance, some smell a strong honey vanilla, others smell like a sweet lemony citrus, and another smells like a white flower scent like jasmine with the honey also. They are wonderful only smell at night, I have about 7 now and growing more, the ones by my front door smell my whole living room up when the door is open on a warm evening. So..... enjoy!!!!!!
P.S. brugmansia's are very easy to root from a cutting....just stick it in water for a few weeks and stick it in the ground, they grow like weeds.

Flowersandthings,

Just remember there's no substitute for your own nose! If you can get to a botanical garden, greenhouse or conservatory in early spring (Longwood Gardens in SE Penn. has one of the largest areas under glass in the country -- I'm dying to go sometime soon!) you'll get a lot of first hand (or is that first nostril?) experience, and the sight of a bunch of magnolias in bloom is just as amazing as the scents!

Jim

I'd call saucer magnolia more... hmm, spicy lily.

I found some heavenly Jasmine sambac essential oil at a health food store but didn't get it since it was $36 for a small bottle, maybe .25- .5 oz. I got some Sumeru Jasmine sambac fragrant oil but it seems a little off to me, not quite the same and a little annoying. I've been wearing some rose oil perfume instead but I'll have to try the Jasmine a little more to see if I can get used to it.