http://www.crescentbloom.com/Plants/Lists/Sweet%20scented/E-K/index.htm

I can only find the grandiflora there unless of course it's one of the others here:

http://www.botany.com/eucharis.html

Man, I've never grown eucharis. But I've smelt it in a greenhouse at Kew Gardens in London and to my mind it has the softest, most gently sweet exhalation of any tropical flower. I certainly did not detect any vinyl! But the nose is a most inexact organ (at least in humans). There's no right and wrong to individual interpretations.

Does your plant look like a large peace lily with white blooms resembling narcissus? That's what the plant I smelt at Kew looked like.

Hi Mare:

I grow this plant and would liken the fragrance to a soft, gentle, wafting version of Ivory dish soap (the regular scent, not the horrible new one that comes in a pale green bottle). Definitely no vinyl, LOL.

That said, I do know of several Eucharis species that are rumored to have "sour" scents. I think this includes Eucharis formosa, but I don't know if this plant is similar enough to E. amazonica or E. x grandiflora to be confused with them.

I think if other people also find the fragrance unpleasant, then you just have a bad clone. Usually people swoon when they smell mine.

Thanks R.P., and I liked your description, battlepanda; that is what it looks like. That's part of what's so startling. That weird smell definitely doesn't go with such a graceful, elegant beauty that somehow manages to look demure and imposing at the same time! Looks like it should smell exactly as you all described.

Hi Ispahan--That's what I was afraid of. I know you were the one who originally got me wanting this one, and you haven't misled me yet. Sigh...guess I'll keep looking. Had really hoped I'd lucked out finding a nicely established one. <: you mentioned amazonica grandiflora--aren they synonyms if not which do recommend>

Hi Mare:

To be honest, I am not sure if they are synonyms or not. I have seem them being used interchangeably and then I have also read that E. x grandiflora is a hybrid of E. amazonica.

I just looked up Eucharis in John E. Bryan's reference book called "Bulbs" and he talks of several known clones of E. x grandiflora that are available (where I do not know), each with slightly different qualities and one that even has a stronger fragrance than normal. Therefore, I think it is possible that you just got a bad clone with a stinky vinyl scent. So unfortunate, because this really is a great, easy plant.

The one I own has flowers with the fragrance of southern magnolia. Mine was acquired from Home Depot.

Boo Hoo....I was with Mare when we found that eucharis and we bought a big one and split it..so now both of us have a plant that doesn't have that beautiful fragrance we keep hearing about! Maybe someday.....

Here is a link that might be useful: The Best of Home Gardening

Well, this forum seems extinct, but I just have a brand new bloom on my Eucharis amazonica. I have to stick my nose right into it, to be able to tell it has a very faint, but pleasant smell. I would say, maybe like a soap perfume.
I was told many years ago about this very fragrant bloom.
May be a different hybrid or may be at a different time of day.
I love the bloom, but am a little disjointed about the slight fragrance.

Extinct! Check out the 'Blooming in' threads we do every month on this forum! :)

Glad to hear yours is blooming.
I've only smelled eucharis at a local greenhouse.
Not sure what species/cultivar it is though but it wasn't a strong scent like a sambac jasmine bloom.

-Robert

Funny, I'd forgotten about that. It ended up dying, but I wasn't too upset. Guess I got a dud. Glad yours smells good, inga!