Fragrance

I made an interesting discovery through the Homegrown Series. My garden flowers, such as the roses and freesias, have better scent than the cut flowers sold at the florists.

I thought it was a coincidence at first, until I bought the cut roses from the supermarket for various photoshoots. The flowers were vivid and abundant, but without any fragrance.

It turned out that many commercially grown roses are scentless because the cultivators had compromised the reproductive genes for better looking and longer-lasting blooms.

In nature, the wildflowers emit fragrant scents to attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies to survive. Ironically, this significant part also made the flowers fragile and perish quicker.

But what’s the point of the roses without the lingering scent? It’s a transactional relationship without the romance. It’s not worth sacrificing the fragrance for better optics.

We invented new things to make life easier on this planet. However, it’d be a shame to create a future generation that can’t recognise a floral scent.

The Homegrown Series is a still life photography project on sustainability.

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“But what’s the point of the roses without the lingering scent?”