A new study appears to confirm that women have a significantly better sense of smell than men while older people can identify more garden scents than those half their age.

The most disliked smell was creosote... followed by compost...

More women than men claimed to be able to recognise 14 out of 15 garden scents in the survey of 2,000 people for Gardeners’ World magazine and recognition improved with age.

The list of smells included rose, lilac, freshly cut grass and compost, with creosote being the only smell recognised by equal numbers of men and women.

More than 50 per cent of pensioners could identify 11 or more of the 15 top garden scents while the majority of 18- to 24-year-olds could only recognise six.

The poll, commissioned to mark a special scented issue of Gardeners’ World magazine, found that freesias are the UK’s favourite garden scent, liked by 92 per cent of respondents, followed by strawberries (91 per cent) and sweet pea (90 per cent).

The most disliked smell was creosote (37 per cent), followed by compost (31 per cent).

Freshly cut grass is the garden scent that most reminds us of childhood, cited by 48 per cent of respondents, followed by mint and strawberry (23 per cent), lavender (21per cent) and creosote (19 per cent).