Q&A from the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

All-Purpose Flower

August 7, 2025

Q When visiting botanical gardens in bloom, when the fragrance fills the air, should I recite a bracha before smelling the flowers?

A Just as we may not enjoy food without a bracha, we may not enjoy a fragrance without one (Brachos 43b, codified in O.C. 216:1). This applies with any pleasant-smelling natural object that is where it is for its aroma. If it serves a different purpose, like spices meant to mask odor in a bathroom, a bracha is not made (O.C. 217:2).

Spices or flowers stored in a warehouse do not get a bracha, because they are not there for their fragrance (Mishnah Brurah 217:1). If they are on display in a store, they require one, because the vendor intends to attract customers with the fragrance (ibid.).

Whether a bracha is made on botanical gardens depends on the intent of its owners or operators. If the flowers are planted solely for their appearance, a bracha is not recited. If their intent included the fragrance, a bracha should be made upon entering. Generally, one should assume that a garden was not planted for fragrance unless otherwise indicated, e.g., if a sign notes the garden’s sweet aroma (Piskei Teshuvos ibid. fn. 10).

If you hold a flower and sniff it, you must recite a bracha, regardless of why it was put there (Mishnah Brurah ibid.). The Chazon Ish (O.C. 35:7) goes further and says that even if you don’t hold the flower, but you come close in order to smell it, you require a bracha.

If you enter a garden planted for the fragrance, but your intention is only to enjoy the scenery, Acharonim debate whether a bracha is made; the Mishnah Brurah (ibid. 2) concludes that it is. It is advisable to deliberately sniff a flower to make the obligation certain (Kaf Hachaim ibid. 2).

If the garden is enclosed by walls, the bracha, where applicable, should only be recited within them—even if the fragrance wafts outside—because the wall acts as a mechitzah between the person and the source of the smell (Eishel Avraham 216:1).