Re: Malodorous plants
When I had a nursery/garden centre, it also had several fields that
were used mainly for overflow car parking on busy days in spring and
summer and horse grazing in winter. Every 3 - 4 years in late spring,
the grass would turn almost completely purple with the intensely
coloured, dense 15" high spikes of Early Purple Orchid - Orchis
mascula. There must have been tens of thousands of them at each
appearance.
One day I was having a dinner party and picked a handful to put into
vase when I got home. Later, as the evening drew on, we all became
aware of an unbearably suffocating stench of stale cat pee. It was
eventually tracked down to that vase of orchids. Even when they were
put out of doors and all the windows thrown fully open, that stink
would not shift.
It took two days plus several cans of aerosol to get rid of it -
easily as persistent as the real thing. ..... And yes it did ruin the
night I got some seriously questioning looks and - none of us could
stomach eating anything at my place, so we repaired to the local pub
for steak and chips - at my expense!
David Poole
TORQUAY UK.
