All I can offer is the perception of scent is very personalized. Not to get overly scientific but it has to do with the amino acids one has and how they are arranged. There are something like 400 gene codes relating to scent and with nearly a million different possible combinations. So every individual has a slightly to extremely different perception of a particular scent. What smells great to one person may smell terrible to someone else....or have no discernable scent at all.

Scented flowers are intended to attract pollinators so most will emit their strongest fragrance during daylight and with sun.....conditions under which pollinators tend to be most active.

IME, Viburnum carlesii has a very appealing, spicy, clove-like scent but not strong enough to perfume an entire garden. I can smell it from maybe 6 feet away and only on a sunny day. Age of the plant should have nothing to do with it. If it is old enough to bloom it is old enough to have a fragrance.

I have been reading on Aphrodite sweetshrubs and it seems half or so of people receive a fragrant one and the others get an unscented or almost unscented one. Maybe I just got a rare Koreanspice dud (from googling, it looks like Proven Winners had a similar review to mine that didn't make it to the official reviews once you click on the link to their site...hmm).

Usually everything smells far too strongly for me (again, migraines) but none of us here likes this plant or can smell it from a short distance. Sunlight hasn't made a difference, I tried today. I noticed the bees weren't around it either.

Oh well, I was just hoping it would sort itself out when it grows but looks like no. Thanks for your help.

Interesting observation about 'Spice Baby'. I've always liked the fragrance of the various large growing fragrant viburnums but in my current garden I don't want a large, mostly deciduous Viburnum, so I've been looking for 'Spice Island' --- "they" say it blooms after the foliage emerges which is fairly unique. But I wonder, did they forget to bring along the great fragrance in their quest for dwarfish, "fragrant" Viburnums? Guess I'll sniff before buying.

Speaking of fragrant plants, my Magnolia (Michelia) 'Inspiration' smells incredible right now.

I don't know plants, but our Koreanspice is definitely far along in the leafing-out process while blooming and, while it won't fit your size needs, we have a lovely, established nannyberry viburnum (they are unscented) that waits until fully leafed to bloom. It's a stunner but nobody really sells them. I bought a tiny sapling off etsy because ours broke in half during a storm.

Enjoy that magnolia! My favorite scent. We missed out on getting to smell our new Sweetbay for the first time ever last year during the Cicada Times when we had to wrap it up. I guess Sweetbay doesn't smell like the typical magnolia, which is too bad, but maybe I will love it even more somehow.

Since I've been trying to get more (some?) fragrance in the yard, I planted a ruby spice summersweet last fall that is supposed to smell like cotton candy. It better! I want my cotton candy plant!

VV, even if you don't grow it, you can add Viburnum tinus to that list :-) It is an extremely popular hedging plant here, offering something of feature year round - pink toned buds that appear in late fall and last all winter, opening up to blushed white flowers in very early spring (and lasting for weeks and weeks) and followed by metallic blue berries.

But it has a very rank aroma! Some describe as akin to well used gym sox, a dead animal or something a dog left behind. Apparently this aroma is strongest after a rain. And may not be perceived by everyone as unpleasant :-) Many UK sites indicate it is "pleasantly" or "lightly" fragrant. Not to my nose!!

So, that adds to my point that one should have identified what one is talking about. All viburnum species are not equal in their characteristics - despite some relatively generic statements on some pretty uninformed websites that seem to cruise fluidly from V. carlesii to V. dentatum to V. tinus, and probably some others, while ascribing all the fragrant to putrid descriptions as if they all applied to the same plant.

Viburnum dentatum (native) and Viburnum dilatatum (exotic) fit my bill of objectionable flower smell - but they are the heaviest bloomers, most fructiferous, and the best for reliable fall color display.

Caveat emptor...

I recall V. rhytidophyllum having a pretty bad floral fragrance as well, I don't remember any bad foliage smells. I love the long, downward hanging evergreen foliage of this species but could never get past the flower smell so I never added one to a garden. Pretty hardy though, if I was back in Z5 I would for sure grow them as it is probably the hardiest evergreen Viburnum, would you concur VValley?

Regarding V. tinus, others have mentioned here that it has a slight, not unpleasant flower fragrance but the foliage stinks at times. Down here in the Willamette Valley the compact one is often covered with mildew.

VV, one of my family members had Chesapeake planted near their front door, and I don't recall it having a noticeably unpleasant fragrance (but I didn't make a point of smelling the flowers). Nice glossy foliage and compact form, but not entirely hardy here.

Is VLB getting close to your location? V dentatum gets significant leaf damage from VLB here.

My working theory is still that the fragrance comes from a mature plant just covered in blooms and without that aggregate, there isn't much to speak of. Otherwise I would say the plant is growing fine. I bought it early last spring in person from a large reputable garden store. It's a bummer not to smell it (or to have it smell badly when you stick your nose right in it) but not something I'd ever yank a plant for. I would chalk "most wonderfully fragrant shrub in the world" or whatever the exact tagline was up to marketing hype but too many home gardeners agree with it, which made me ask.

Well, there's nothing in the photos that would dismiss this as anything else, so at least you weren't shortchanged in getting what you thought you were getting. "Reputable" does not exempt one from mistakes.

All that said: do your plants experience deer browse? If not, I wonder why there aren't a lot more flowers/blooms on that plant. V. carlesii sets terminal flower buds on previous season's branches, and my little 2 gallon pots have that many blooms already (and quite fragrant).

I hope you give this one more of a chance. Less criticism may cause it to flourish and meet your expectations, and you'll be handsomely rewarded...

@artinnature: V. rhytidophyllum is certainly a handsome broadleaf evergreen species, but it is NOT the hardiest of the evergreen forms. A very common hybrid from this species crossed with V. lantana may very well be - V. x rhytidophylloides. 'Alleghany' is a USNA selection of this cross, is heavily planted as a screening hedge, and is pretty tough due to its Wayfaringtree Viburnum parent's influence. I also believe V. x burkwoodii will also be hardier, due to the V. carlesii parent. V. rhytidophyllum could be the hardiest non-hybrid species.

@arbordave (SE MI): 'Chesapeake' does not waft in fragrance, but if you were to make the olfactory inquiry, I think you'd find next to nothing to write home about or an off-putting smell. Not nearly as bad as V. dilatatum (the worst, to me) or other malodorous monsters like Maackia.

A pox on your house for mentioning VLB! I have not heard of it this far south, and I hope it stays that way. I have only known of it by reports from the northern tier of states (NY, PA, OH, MI, WI), but as those are also Viburnum producing states, It may only be a matter of time and carelessness that it gets shipped into our midst. Somebody needs to develop a recipe generously employing that as a spice...market them out of existence.

One last tweak for those seeking Viburnum vengeance...V. x b. Tunnel Vision™...

Well now I don't know why it doesn't produce more flowers. Before you mentioned it I assumed because it was so young. I'm treating it the best I know how. Deer browse is really likely but they usually leave some kind of visible evidence of munching plus I have a nature cam pointed in that spot (birdfeeder area) that has never shown them interested in it, just the unfortunate azalea next to it. Maybe few blooms is the mystery I should be looking into.

As I said, I have no plans to pull a healthy plant out.