Better scented than S. Arnott!

[Diane Whitehead]

Is the sun shining when you can smell the snowdrops?

Here on the Pacific coast, we don't see the sun very often in the winter
and the snowdrops stay closed.

[RichardW]

They were very smelly this morning but it was warm & sunny, all open and looking like white propellers by mid morning.

I did pass around the Babraham flowers on my walks today and most agreed they were honey scented but also quite musky compared to sweeter S Arnott.

[uvularia]

As I bring them inside to take photographs, most are scented. Few aren't.

It was the strongly scented aspect I was interested in i.e. detectable scent outside.
From the garden worthy aspect, a scented plant in garden needs to detectable on the breeze I feel.
Good winter scented shrubs like Sarcococca confusa, Chimonanthus praecox, Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn', Lonicera x purpusii
all waft round the garden and S. Arnott also does given a big enough drift.

[Alan_b]

Is the sun shining when you can smell the snowdrops?

Your best hope is to pick the flowers and take them indoors.  Failing that you need an unusually warm and still day.  You can sometimes catch the scent from a large drift although it can be fairly subtle.  I'm not blessed with S. Arnott in my garden but I have never ever come across scent from any quantity of snowdrops with the strength of a single bush of Sarcococca confusa except when the snowdrops are indoors (e.g. at the RHS London Show in February).