Smell in person to be sure they are right for your nose.

@Embothrium There are none of these around for me to smell. Im ordering them online which is why Im asking. If i had access to smell them myself I wouldnt be asking other people.

I have V. carlesii and will tell you it is intensely, sweetly fragrant. The smell wafts across the yard and carries a good distance. It also has decent gold fall color. I can’t compare to the others as I don’t own them. however I’m not sure you could go wrong with any of the fragrant viburnums. Good luck!

All three are great! If you look at ratings for fragrant viburnums, these three tend to lead the pack. A number of years ago, a nursery that I worked with at the time did a "sniff-off" of the early flowered scented viburnums so visitors could sample sniff the scent of each, much as Embothrium described. To my nose, juddii had the most intense and carrying aroma but all three smelled divine.

The sense of smell is very subjective however, so what smells great to someone may smell rank or musty to someone else. I find the scent to be spicy sweet.....a little carnation, a little vanilla, a little clove, a little lilac. I wouldn't say no to any of the three!

I really liked viburnumvalley's comments in this old thread: Which viburnum smells better?

Final conclusion: "The best answer is: enjoy as many as you have room for, and when you run out of space, encourage neighbors to plant the others."

@arbordave (SE MI) I read that post before posting but was hoping since it was 10 years ago Id be able to get more opinions :) ...unfortunately i have to choose carefully because of my limited space, and Im very reclusive so interacting with neighbors isnt an option either haha...

Your original post describes very specific requirements so there really is no way to be sure that a particular viburnum is just exactly what you want without you having smelled it yourself first.

@Embothrium actually the only requirement is that its strongly fragrant. the other info was simply information about other scents i like for comparison.

@j k The most delightful fragrant one is V. carlesii. I haven't met one my nose didn't like!