This plant will not stand the freezing weather unless you have a warm green house in the winter. The fragrance is desirable for most people.

You might check reference about Michelia yunnanensis. Mine is blooming now which also has nice but slightly milder fragrance. This species might stand occasionally lower temperature.

Michelia figo smells like ripe bananas. I have them a lot this year its a good plant to grow out doors in south even with occasional frost. We actually had severe ice strom this year but my plant did very good and has so many flowers I couldn't imagine.

I must say I was a bit disappointed with m. figo. I had heard so much about the fragrance but found it was not that strong. Also, the flowers are small and do not last very long. Whereas m. alba has much more substantial blooms that last longer. Right now the fragrance permeates my house in a very subtle way - I catch a slight whiff all the way at the other end of the house every now and again. The fragrance is fruity. Even the foliage has a pleasant smell when bruised, and the leaves are large and beautifully green.

When we discuss fragrant flowers, we lacks a standard to campare. I totally agree with Jyothi and charlottelily. I gave away my figo long time ago.

One time I wrote a method to evaluate the fragrance of camellia on The Camellia Journal. The standard fragrant flower is set with a camellia species of lutchuensis. The flower is placed in room temerature( at 70 to 72 degrees F ) for about 5 hours before evaluation:

the standard fragrance intensity as 5
the standard fragrance preference as 5
the discription of the fragrance as sweet lemony
Intensity, Preference, Description of the fragrance

Then if there is a new fragrant camellia, slightly mild, fragrance is still very attractive but different, I would give my evaluation about the fragrance as:

4/5, 4.5/5, blend of rose and wild flower fragrance.

If one flower is even better than the standard, it can be expressed as:

5/5, 5.5/5, like a high quality perfume

If one camellia has a strong ordor, not very inviting, it can be as:

5.5/5, 1/5, earthy and slightly moldy

It is hard to evaluate different kinds of fragrant flowers with this method.

I just got a small tree loaded with blooms. I walked by at a plant show and had to keep coming back. The vendor had others that weren't flowering and didn't want to let the flowering one go until after the show. I had to come back at closing the next day and drive an extra 80 miles but it was worth it! He said he grafts the alba onto the yellow rootstock and it helps them flower sooner. I will try to post a picture of my little tree later... it's in a 3 gallon pot and in the pot comes up to maybe my shoulders (I'm 5'6") and has about 20 flowers. The scent is lovely, initially I didn't think "juicy fruit gum" but after smelling it for a couple of days I can see some juicy fruit undertones but overall it is a very pleasing scent.