Hi Mark and All, Merry Christmas. All I can say is that I'm glad we don't have skunks in England but I've never smelt a Tulbaghia that I can attribute to a skunk. Many species of the genus Tulbaghia are scented and even those that don't smell, do sometimes provide a scent, and I've even attributed a banana odour to the generally unscented Tulbaghia violacea. I grow so many Tulbaghia, over 80 forms that make up the national collection for a reason. I lost 'all' sence of smell whilst playing cricket at horticultural college in 1988, and going for a big hit I knocked the ball straight into my face, seriously braking my nose. However in the summer of 1996, I went out into the garden on a warm sultry evening and to my amazement smelt a detectable scent coming across the garden. Obviously the scent was difficult to track down because of my loss, but after half an hour I found where it was coming from, from one of the smallest flowers in the garden, a plant of Tulbaghia montana. At that stage I only had two Tulbaghia, and these included T. montana and T. cominsii, and at that stage of collecting the T. montana was in the hort trade as both T. alliacea and T. leucantha, and this is something I've been glad to correct. I definately think that Tulbaghia have had a bearing on my sense of smell returning, and this is why I started to collect more of them, call it gratitude if you like. Since these early days I've attributed various smells to them, the following are examples. T. simmleri - sweet sickly T. capensis x alliacea - cinnamon T. macrocarpa - almond T. violacea - banana T. leucantha - an old 60s brand of washing powder, OMO, remembered from laudrettes during my childhood in the 60s and 70s. T. montana - cloves On telling the story of how my sense of smell returned to a friend, she used Tulbaghia on her daughter who had lost her sense of smell during chemotherapy. I'm pleased to announce that the trial actually worked and her sense of smell improved over time. Since then I've been trying to get Tulbaghia researched in more detail, the genus is well known as having medicinal properties and there maybe something in the scent in some species that will stimulate the sense of smell in humans. My only problem is that when it comes to the loss of a sense, the sense of smell is never gets any medical priority, and thus more research is done on hearing, sight and the nervous system. I suppose one day someone may contact me wishing to do a study but until then I can only wait and hope. Scents are in most cases designed to attract insect pollinators, and given this the purpose of scent, I for one cannot understand why more medical studies haven't been done relating to sense stimulation in humans. Researching Tulbaghia would be a very good start. I now having a very keen sense of smell again, co-incidence or not, they do more for me than a dose of smelling salts, and have perhaps the longest flowering season of any bulb, eg. T. cominsii, 9 months without a break, T. cominsii x violacea and T. coddii 8 months without a break. Best Wishes, Dave David Fenwick The African Garden 96 Wasdale Gardens Estover Plymouth Devon England PL6 8TW 01752 301402 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com/). Version: 6.0.550 / Virus Database: 342 - Release Date: 10/12/03