A month ago a friend let me pick some of their scented lemon geranium before it died once frost hit. Many people plant these herbs as mosquito repellants or to mimic the scent of rose (which they smell similar to).
The leaves were sitting in a ziploc in the hot sun and of course they wilted and smelled of sulfur. I assumed the problem was anaerobic decomposition due to the heat and low-pxygen space. I picked a new batch.
But by the time I started processing them a few hours later in a cool house, they were already starting to wilt and smell like rotten eggs again. Even the small amount of leaves I'd placed in a shallow bowl smelled.
I threw out the herbs and went back recently to get more. I thought I'd throw these in a dehydrator right away and let them sit at 100f to avoid problems. They started smelling again.
An online search revealed that the culprit may have been a bacterial infection in the plant. One thing that supports this is that I noticed that while the leaves I picked were clear and green across the stems, a got a couple of stalks near the base of the plant and they were a dark purplish pink. This was a likely sign of infection.
I threw out this batch too and if I manage to get my hands on some rose or lemon scented geranium, I'll know that if they start smelling the whole lot must be tossed. It's too bad because lemon and rose scented geranium makes a really great herbal tea or culinary herb. These geranium or "pelargonium" plants shouldn't be confused with scentless varieties sold as garden ornamentals because the unscented ones aren't edible.
