Orchid

Group: Flowers

Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfume is an independent perfume house from the Pacific Northwest (USA). It was founded in 2010 by Ellen Covey, the owner of Olympic Orchids orchid nursery. Many fragrances created by Ellen are devoted to certain orchid species. We invited Ellen to share her knowledge about orchids with our readers.

Ellen Covey: Orchids have been around for at least 80 million years based on evidence from pollen stuck to the backs of bees found in amber, so were probably around in the time of the dinosaurs. The flowers are delicate to look at, but the plants are amazingly tough. Some orchids grow on the ground or on rocks, but most grow on tree trunks or branches, never touching the ground. They’re epiphytes, meaning they don’t hurt the trees in any way, they just use them as a surface to grow on. All they need is a little light, a little water, and trace amounts of nitrogen and minerals, and they’re off and growing. I grow many of my plants on pieces of cork bark or wood, not in pots. Orchids are distributed worldwide, and have co-evolved with their pollinators.

Most are pollinated by insects. Each orchid species’ fragrance attracts the species of insect that pollinates it. They also attract insects with nectar treats, flowers that are designed to look like female insects, and trapping mechanisms that force the insect to exit in a way that ensures that the pollen sticks to its back. Many orchids have markings on the lips that form a landing strip for insects, guiding them straight to the area where the pollen will be loaded onto the insect. Orchid plants are not particularly symmetrical, but the flowers do exhibit bilateral symmetry, with three sepals, two petals, and a lip.

Ellen Covey: There are about 20,000-30,000 species of orchids belonging to about 900 different genera. Orchid scents are all over the place from the most beautiful floral scents to odors that we find unpleasant, such as feces or rotten meat. The scent depends on what insect pollinates the orchid. Bees and butterflies are attracted to floral scents, and flies are attracted to rotting animal matter. Each genus of orchids has a range of scents, but there is generally some predictability within a genus. Cattleya orchids all have floral-type scents that range from light and citrusy to heavy and indolic. Bulbophyllum orchids often have rotten meat odors, or other stinky smells.

I have orchids that smell exactly like coconut suntan lotion, butterscotch and cedar wood, cinnamon, sweet clover, roses, or baby powder. If there is a “typical” orchid flower scent, it would probably be a generic cattleya, but more often the “orchid” note in perfume is a fantasy note of some sort. Vanilla is extracted from the seedpods of an orchid, so maybe it could be thought of as the quintessential orchid scent. To me, the most interesting thing about orchid fragrances is the huge variety that rivals the variety of manmade perfumes of all types.

Ellen Covey: I started working with orchids about 20 years ago when I inherited four mature cattleya plants from a colleague who retired. They were the only houseplants (actually, they were office plants) that I ever grew successfully. After they bloomed under my care, I was so impressed that I went to my first orchid show, which really blew my mind. At the show I bought some more plants, and the rest is history.

Ellen Covey: Yes, I have all of them. The most impressive ones are the large specimen-size plants on which the fragrances Red Cattleya and Golden Cattleya were based. They are both in bud and will be blooming soon. I also have multiple plants of Brassavola Little Stars, Dendrobium moniliforme (the model for Osafume), and Phalaenopsis javanica. It’s interesting that the Phalaenopsis javanica flowers from different plants smell different, and so do the flowers of the different varieties of Dendrobium moniliforme. All of the Little Stars flowers smell alike, though, and smell exactly like both of the parent species.

Ellen Covey: It would take far too many orchid flowers to distill or extract a fragrance, even if it were possible to capture their fragrance that way. The method I use is the same as that used to capture any other fragrance that cannot be distilled or otherwise extracted. I combine a variety of natural and synthetic materials to simulate the fragrance of the orchid flower, but in a way that works as a perfume. An orchid or any other flower is constantly pumping out the whole spectrum of top to base notes, but a perfume evolves in stages, with the top notes fading over time. The challenge is to create a perfume that captures the spirit of the flower fragrance in some way throughout its evolution.

Fragrantica is thankful to Ellen Covey for a nice conversation!

	GOLDEN  CATTLEYA The scent of this orchid is pure gold - narcissus, daffodil, orange fruit, orange blossoms, honey, pollen, and cream soda combine with amber-tinged resins and musks to create a warm and long-lasting aura like late afternoon sunshine. This is not your usual sweet flowery orchid scent!
	JAVANICA Walk into a hothouse full of colorful moth orchids with their perfect round flowers and their succulent green leaves. Suddenly you’re captivated by a sweet, heady scent that seems to be coming from an invisible flower. It’s Phalaenopsis javanica, whose tiny red-striped flowers hide underneath the huge, shiny, umbrella-like leaves and produce a seductive spicy flowery scent.
	LITTLE  STARS Imagine a hot, steamy night in the jungle. Insects chirping, unseen creatures moving in the leaves and branches, and the heavenly scent of a flower that must be the orchid queen of the night. A spicy, woody floral scent reminiscent of white, night-fragrant orchids and the woody branches that they grow on.
	OSAFUME A delicate, summery scent inspired by a dainty miniature Japanese orchid, Dendrobium moniliforme. Anise, star anise, and magnolia combine with heliotrope, vanilla, and white musk to make this light, airy fragrance.
	RED  CATTLEYA A soft, sumptuous fruity-floral blend inspired by the scent of red Cattleya orchids. You’ve just walked into a Victorian hothouse packed with the most exotic orchid species, brought back by explorers from jungles all over the world. The scent of the blooming cattleyas envelops you, a soft, sumptuous fruity-floral blend with notes of citrus, peach, apricot, melon, hyacinth, gardenia, violets and lilac.

Please see all Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes in Fragrantica encyclopedia
and visit the official Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfume web site.

Perfumes and Colognes With Orchid