ST. LOUIS, MO .- A rose by any other name may still smell as sweet, but without roses and other plants, we might not have the perfumes and popular sweet-smelling products we use today.

A new interdisciplinary exhibition at the Stephen and Peter Sachs Museum at the Missouri Botanical Garden explores the botanical, cultural, and olfactive history of the spectrum of scents created by plants – from floral to stinky.

“Remarkably, despite being integral to our daily lives, scents are overlooked in importance in many ways. Plants contribute so many smells that are so familiar to us, from the flowers and trees we enjoy, the foods and beverages we eat and drink, as well as the perfumes and incense we may use,” Sachs Museum Curator Nezka Pfeifer said. “The world of museums and scientific research has been focused on scent in recent years with opportunities to learn more about which pollinators are attracted by which plants’ smells, but also how artists and olfactory experts interpret the meaningful presence of smells in human culture. This exhibition is unique in that it focuses exclusively on the intersections between plants and the scents they create through the unique smells of plants in the Garden’s collections, including some endangered and not usually found in perfumery. These fragrances inspire us every day and they have important stories to tell us through their scents."

Smelling the Bouquet: Plants and Scents in the Garden will examine how those scents considered desirable to humans are used to create perfume, incense, and other smells and flavorings. The exhibition will include interactive scent stations featuring the scents of plants in live Garden collections, contemporary scientific research, and olfactory art.

This exhibition will be on view through March 31, 2026. The Sachs Museum is open 11:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. daily and is included with regular Garden admission.

Engaging visitor opportunities, including a performance series and “sniff 'n learn” programs are planned throughout the exhibition's run to provide unique opportunities for visitors to connect with the exhibition. All the art and scent commissions, performance series, and sniff ‘n learns are sponsored by Nancy Ridenour.

Smelling the Bouquet will explore many aspects of plants and scents, including diverse uses like perfume, incense, and other scent-based cultural practice. The exhibition will also explore active Garden research projects. The exhibition will include sniffing stations featuring dozens of plant scents and compounds, cultural scent objects, and Garden Herbarium specimens. Visitors can also engage with the fragrant plants depicted in the Museum’s iconic botanical ceiling mural with a unique activity guide developed by olfactory experts.

Scent highlights include Madagascar vanilla and its various compounds, as well as orchid bee and plant research by PhD students studying plant and insect chemical relationships at UC Davis. Garden scientists Dr. Mónica Carlsen and the William L. Brown Center team in Madagascar have completed headspace/scent trapping of plants both in St. Louis and Madagascar, with analyses completed by the Bioanalytical Chemistry Facility at the Danforth Plant Science Center to learn more about the fragrant volatiles these plants produce.

St. Louis-area perfumers Shawn Maher and Weston Adam have created several interpretive fragrances of special and fragrant plants in the Garden’s conservatories and gardens ranging from the rare and endangered to the famously stinky. A special olfactory artwork commission in the exhibition is by olfactory artist Dr. Gayil Nalls who has created a 2025 edition of her World Sensorium. This olfactory artwork is a perfect dovetail of the primordial relationship humans have with plants and their scents. Around the world, each country holds different iconic aromatic plants to have special meanings in their cultures. They are used daily for medicine, rituals, and cultural practices. Through a global survey, these plants were identified and their essential oils were formulated into a one-world scent based on each country’s population percentage. They form the foundation of World Sensorium.