Mine doesn't smell noticeably. I have it in a short hedge, which is dense to the bottom, and I find it bushes out in response to pruning. You need to prune it straight after flowering or you lose next year's flowers. My soil is very stoney, not very fertile, and I don't feed it. It has been intermittently munched, but not recently. The only annoyance factor it has is that the older wood is very hard, so cutting back is hard work.