Save the Flowers

Would-be scent engineers aim to resurrect lost floral fragrance

Vince Agnes, as well-appointed as the flowers that he has been selling for more than 60 years in his shop in Silver Spring, Md., remembers when all his roses smelled as good as they looked. When he opened for business in the 1940s, there were only a few varieties: red, white, yellow, and pink, he recalls.