I love paperwhites and insist on having them every year - despite the complaints from everyone else in the family about their smell! I think it's like cilantro. You either have the gene that lets you appreciate it or not.

My partner complained just today about the "smell"!

I did paperwhites for year, till I decided their 'fragrance' offended my allergies. They're prettier than they smell though.

The are lovely but it is one of those fragrances I can't abide indoors. Same thing with gardenias and oriental lilies.

I'll wait until hyacinth season and enjoy that fragrance:-) Or splurge on a bunch of freesias!!

I love to look at them, but they take my breath away, in a fairly literal sense. I once had light yellow ones, and they had a pleasant, sweet fragrance. Less indole, I guess. I cannot have Easter lilies inside the house either. Outside they are fine, in little whiffs.

Gardengal, where do you get fragrant freesias? I remember them from when I grew up in Holland, but we once visited the freesia greenhouses of an acquaintance here in Canada: bigger blooms than I remembered, in many colours, but no fragrance at all. I was so disappointed...

I am assuming the cut ones are coming from California. But my local nursery sells budded containerized plants also at this time of year that most likely have a more local source. And IMO, flower color makes a difference with the scent, with the strongest fragrance coming from white or yellow flowering plants - less so from the red, orange or purple/lavender.

But that may be all in my head :-)

Thank you! I may have to sniff around when I see freesias again. The ones from my youth were yellow or white ;-). I googled around, and found that breeders went for longer and stronger stems, and more colours. Fragrance was not a breeding goal, and was allowed to disappear, though it seems that certain modern varieties have retained the scent. I will see what I can find, I am getting nostalgic now. Also try the small cyclamen, especially white and warm pink. One plant can fill a room with its lovely scent. Those you buy with your nose.