It's sea kale. This is a plant I've tried to grow for years more for its use as a vegetable than anything else. The seed has a corky outer coating that floats but also makes germination a bit tricky. I managed to grow two plants from seed, but those never did well and died out pretty quickly. My current plants come from a very traditional plant nursery (no cafes, garden furniture or scented bath soaps!) that I visit when I get the chance.
What got these plants to thrive is being planted in a bottomless pot. I think sea kale needs better drainage that most of my garden offers and nice deep soil. The bottomless pots solve both issues nicely: I honestly don't know why you can't buy these more easily, but I made my own with an angle grinder.
And then after all that effort, this year one of my plants actually flowered. And it is very attractive: the thick grey brassica leaves and the masses of white flowers make it the equal of any other ornamental when in bloom. But the scent... I could smell it from three or four meters away, which I didn't expect, and I wasn't sure I liked it.
Most descriptions describe the scent as honey, but the combination of strong sickly sweetness with a slight hint of sourness brought to mind sweat or something rotting for me. It's the same not quite pleasant combination that many fly pollinated flowers have, although I'm not sure which insects the sea kale was trying to attract. I asked the other half for her opinion to check it wasn't just me, and she leaned more towards "honey" than I did, but "fake chemical honey".
So there you go.
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