tThe fragrance of Narcissus flowers is used for luxury perfumes because of its delicate odor. Fragranceproductivity is relatively low and an increase in fragrance yield is therefore an important issue. Thisstudy investigated the development of scent emission and scent profile of narcissus cultivars of simpleand double flower architecture. Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and capillary gaschromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS) were applied to analyze flower scent in dependence ofdaytime and flower age. The major scent compounds identified were those typical for Narcissus species,monoterpenes and benzenoids, here in form of cis--ocimene and benzyl acetate. The double flowercultivar, with 11 major compounds had a more complex scent profile than the simple flower cultivarwith 6 major volatiles. Both cultivars showed circadian emission patterns and produced significantly lessscent during the night than during the day with a reduction of 40% in double flowers and 37% in singleflowers. Four-day old flowers produced 37% and 59% less volatiles in double and simple flowers comparedto freshly cut flowers. Volatile composition varied among cultivars, daytime and flower age, howeverbenzyl acetate and cis--ocimene continuously formed the major compounds. Compound flowers withdoubled perianth structures produced double amount of scent compared to simple flowers independentof daytime. The drastic differences in volatile production depending on daytime, flower age and flowerarchitecture should be taken into account when using narcissus flowers for the production of absolutefragrance extracts.