When you give a person a rose, the first thing they often do is smell it. We’ve grown roses in our gardens for hundreds, if not thousands of years with fragrance in mind and continue to do so today. As a garden plant, roses offer us a wide variety of varieties with fragrance of all different colours, flower forms and plant types. No other garden plant comes close to what the rose offers in terms of fragrance.
Fragrance amongst roses is highly subjective, we are all different in what we perceive as fragrant or not so what one may find as a strong scented variety, the next person may detect little or no scent. There are around 200 different elements that make up a roses scent and we all detect these differently so no wonder we all note fragrances differently.
Our environment also plays a huge role in the detection of fragrance. As a general rule, days that are warm, calm and humid offer the best conditions for fragrance to be released while there is often little fragrance to be detected on cold and damp days. Then there are some very strongly scented varieties which a fragrance will be detected almost all of the time.
It is incredibly challenging for rose breeders to breed for fragrance. Cross two highly fragrant roses and you may get nothing in terms of fragrance from the resulting seedlings. Also, there are several negative qualities, particularly poor disease resistance and poor vase life linked to fragrance and often you will get fragrance with at least one of these negative characteristics. However, it is reassuring to note that many breeders are now making fragrance a top priority and are creating some great fragrant roses that are easy to grow.
Some very fragrant roses to grow are:
Hybrid Tea
Amber Flush ( amber), Auckland Metro (white), Aotearoa (pale pink), Blackberry Nip (purple), Charteuse de Parme (magenta pink), Clodagh McGredy (apricot), Diamonds Forever (soft yellow), Hayley Westenra (pink apricot), Lasting Love (dusky red), Matawhero Magic (bronzy orange), Memorial Day (orchid pink), Pope John Paul II (white), Waimarie (mauve pink).
Floribunda
Absolutely Fabulous (butter yellow), Apricot Scentasia (apricot), Blueberry Hill (lilac),
Friesia (yellow), Margaret Merril (white), Midnight Blue (purple), Outta the Blue (magenta/lavender), Scentasia (creamy yellow), Scentimental (red and white striped).
Climbers
Compassion ( pink/apricot), Emily’s Rose (soft pink), Fourth of July (red/white striped), Golden Future (pale yellow), Leaping Salmon (salmon pink), Red Flame (dusky red), Sir Edmund Hillary (creamy white), Taffeta (creamy white)
David Austins
Most Austins are fragrant but try the following:
Abraham Darby (peachy pink/yellow reverse), Charlotte (yellow), Evelyn (apricot), Falstaff (deep crimson), Glamis Castle (white), Mary Rose (rich pink), William Shakespere 2000 (crimson).
Miniature/Patio
Few of this type of rose are strongly fragrant but the following have a noticeable fragrance if you can get down to small them!
Beauty Secret (red), Moon River (silvery lavender), Orchid Lace (lavender lilac), Sweet Chariot (lavender purple).
Old Fashioned Roses
Most are strongly fragrant, some good ones to grow are:
Alberic Barbier (creamy white), Alchemist (yellow/apricot), Buff Beauty (apricot gold), Cornelia (coral pink), Frau Dagmar Hastrupp (clear pink), Gloire De Dijon (buff yellow), Gruss An Aachen (pale pink/cream), Madam Alfred Carriere (white), New Dawn (silvery pink), Penelope (creamy pink), Paul Transon (coppery orange pink),
Roseraie De L’Hay (
purple crimson), Scabrosa (mauve pink), Souvenir De La Malmaison (soft pink), Veilchenblau (purple violet), Zephirine Drouhin ( rosy pink).
There are many more but these are the better performers and readily obtainable around the country from garden centres or nurseries.
By Hayden Foulds
Hayden also serves as Deputy Chairman of the World Federation of Rose Societies Rose Trials Committee amongst other rose endeavours.