Like me, Druse finds many of the more pungent odors not only interesting but appealing. We are both fans of boxwood scent, paperwhite narcissi and oriental lilies; these have their detractors. Even the skunk cabbage, Druse says, has its allure. He calls its scent “animalic.” “I don’t want to wallow in them, but I don’t mind them,” he says. “It reminds me they’re alive.” And that he’s alive? “I’ll go there,” he says.

— Ken Druse, author of The Scentual Garden: Exploring the World of Botanical Fragrance, talks to the Washington Post. Read more in Gardens have largely lost their fragrance. Here’s how we can bring it back.