Amy Stewart’s wonderful book on the cut flower industry, Flower Confidential, begins with a conversation about scent:
“What’s the first thing a person does when you hand them flowers?” Bob Otsuka, general manager of the San Francisco Flower Mart, asked me. To answer his own question, he pantomimed the gesture people make, bringing his hands to his face and breathing deeply.
“They smell them,” he said. (p. 1)
But fragrance, as we know so well, is expensive. It costs plants a lot of energy to produce, and it shortens the lives of their blooms. Cut flowers, like those sold at the Flower Mart, are “bred for industry” — for color, uniformity, and durability. Along the way, most have lost their scent.
And yet, Otsuka tells Stewart, “People still want to believe that flowers smell good. I’ve seen somebody put their face right into a bunch of ‘Leonides’ and say, ‘Oh, they smell wonderful.’ But I know that rose. It’s got gold petals with coppery edges — you know the one I mean? It was bred for fall weddings. And it doesn’t have any fragrance at all.” (Ibid.)
Stewart goes on to see many floral marvels, but the story of those scentless roses haunts the rest of the book. It’s a small parable on the perils of turning the beauty and romance of flowers into a very big business, and a poignant reminder of the way we instinctively use our sense of smell to connect to the world. Later, Stewart catches herself sniffing at a bouquet even though she knows there is nothing to smell.
I’ve thought of those scentless roses often, and wistfully. So this May, when the large UK-based flower seller Interflora (a division of FTD) announced they would be showing four new fragrant rose bouquets at the Chelsea Flower Show I paid attention. Could this be the start of a new trend?
My research revealed legendary rose breeder/grower David Austin had taken the plunge into the cut flower market with fragrant, old-fashioned roses that can be ordered from Interflora, various high-end florists, or directly from the Austin website, where bouquets start at $80 for a dozen roses.
Then, a few months later, I spotted a cut flower display labeled “Fragrant Roses” at my local high-end grocery store. They looked very different from standard long-stemmed roses. Their stems were on the thinner, shorter side, and they had full, round heads that were more open than the tight buds I usually see. Each bouquet (six for nine dollars, not too bad) was labeled by name, blooming habit, scent and origins. I sniffed through half a dozen and went home with the two most fragrant bouquets I could find, a white rose named “Jeanne Moreau” (and how perfect is that?) and another white called “Vitality.”
Ms. Moreau proved subtle once I got her home, but Vitality filled our entire living room with a bright tea-rose fragrance that was noticeable every time I entered the room. Both roses lasted a full seven days in their vase on the mantle, away from direct sunlight, and opened beautifully into large, loose painterly blooms.
The web address on the bouquet label led me to Alexandra Farms, a grower based in Colombia. Alexandra Farms is a small company. Their charming website introduces each of their employees with a photograph and bio, and when I wrote to the person in charge of sales, I got my answer directly from the president of the company, Jose Azout, who was also kind enough to answer my follow up questions.
Azout told me that Alexandra Farms was started by a group of industry veterans who “got a bit bored with the industrial looking, bred for shelf life roses we were growing. We wanted to go back to the romance roses used to represent in Victorian England and early 18th century Holland and the Dutch masters' paintings.”
Boredom and romance? Really? What about market analysis? Azout pointed to the popularity of vintage clothes and old music, the feeling that “things just aren’t made like they used to be,” but the heart of the matter was that roses have been done in by the very qualities that made their mass production possible. Once the same standardized, scentless roses started showing up in cheap, stiff bunches at every grocery store, Walmart and Costco, roses no longer seemed special. At the same time, customers had developed more sophisticated tastes. Industry veterans weren’t the only ones who were bored and longing for romance.
And there is something romantic about the way Alexandra Farms combed through hundreds of old and abandoned varieties from breeders, looking for that magic combination of scent, looks, and vase life. Once they had successfully grown and sold a few varieties, breeders began coming to them with their fragrant and “old-fashioned” looking roses. Each year, Alexandra Farms tests over one hundred varieties and selects around five. The rose pictured just above is a new, not-yet-available favorite of Azout’s, the White O’Hara. (Check out that quartered center.) He described its scent as “floral, with a bit of myrrh.”1
Like David Austin Roses, Alexandra Farms sells mostly to high-end florists. My grocery store is one of only two in the U.S. to carry their flowers. Any plans to expand on the mass market front? (I asked, fingers crossed.) Azout gave me a qualified yes — they’re looking carefully at “very high end grocery stores that target very discriminating consumers.” Perhaps they are afraid too much availability would mean their roses, too, would no longer be special.
I wonder. The florist at my grocery store told me they’ve sold out every lot of Alexandra Farms roses they’ve ordered, and that the most fragrant varieties are always the first to go.
I asked Azout if he noticed a difference in the way people respond to fragrant roses. Like Otsuka, he noted that every time someone picks up a flower they smell it. He has seen many people bend to sniff flowers that have no scent: “you can see the let down in their eyes.” But with a fragrant rose, “their eyes sparkle, or they close their eyes and smile.”
Sounds like romance, doesn’t it?
1. Reading through the descriptions of rose scents on various websites, I noticed that notes frequently paired with roses in perfume (myrrh, spices, citrus, violets, berries and other fruit) often show up in the blooms themselves. If you grow roses, please do comment on this.
Note: all images are courtesy of Alexandra Farms. The roses at the top, shown left to right, are: Marietheresia, Augusta Luise and Romantic Antike.
Wow! What a must have book! Thank you so much for bringing it to our attention. I live in a condo now, so no more rose growing, but I used to and I will tell you that the most fragrant rose I ever grew, hands down, was a tea rose called Dolly Parton, named, I think, for its big, voluptuous buds. One bloom would strongly scent the entire house.
Totally going to go Google “Dolly Parton+rose” now, Rapp, thanks for that. Can you describe the smell?
Researching this article made me understand how easy it would be to get really crazy about roses in the same way I am about perfume.
Yes, it is very easy to go crazy over roses, and it is a very common phenomenon. Not every flower has a whole organization devoted to it (The American Rose Society). If you ever get a chance, go see the gardens at the ARS headquarters in Shreveport.–one hundred acres or rose gardens! I wasn’t even going to grow roses at first. I thought they were too fussy, too demanding, and too much trouble. Then I tried two rose bushes to replace something else that had died. They are a variety called Belinda’s Dream, which was developed by a breeder in Texas for the Texas climate. They actually like heat and humidity, do not get black spot, and even the bugs seem to leave them alone. They also get 6 to 8 feet tall and wide and cover themselves with masses of big pink roses from March to December. I’ve had them for nearly 10 years now, and they never give me any trouble. After that, I tried a few more, and before I knew what was happening, I was hooked. I suppose it is a sickness, but it is such a fun sickness!
“Such a fun sickness” could describe most of my best pleasures! Will have to look up Belinda’s dream, too, thanks.
And thanks, Flora, for coming back to describe Dolly’s scent!
Dolly Parton has one of the best “true rose” scents around – pure damask, drawing the best qualities from both its parents, except that it can be disease-prone, but definitely worth coddling!
Alyssa – Dolly’s scent is as voluptuous as her blooms (which open up to be massive six inch flowers!). To put it in perfume terms, I’d say something close to Guerlain’s Nahema – to me Dolly Parton has a lot more going on than a straight up soliflore.
Very well-named, then!
You got it just right , Rappleyea! It’s almost fluorescent in its intensity of scent like its parent Fragrant Cloud, but unlike that one it does not take on a turpentine quality in hot weather, being tempered by the fruity-damask genes of its other parent, the black-red Oklahoma.( I have a keen interest in rose pedigrees, flower geek that I am.)
Any flower that actually resembles the smell of Nahema is all right in my book!
How interesting! I love learning about her pedigree. Thanks!
Hey! I had a Dolly Parton too! big ,voluptuous, pinky-red ,velvety blooms –also very yummy according to local deer.
My cats liked them too! Although they happily munched most of my blooms, including a large peace lily down to the nubs!
My 18-month-old daughter has apparently watched me bury my nose in flowers so many times that she stops to smell every single bouquet, flower pot or planter we pass (and if you have a flower graphic on your clothes, she’ll probably sniff that too). It’s hilarious seeing the different expressions on her face when she finds something she likes. I bet she’d go nuts for the highly scented roses!
Oh that’s great! It sounds like you’ve passed along your love of scent very well…
Alyssa, awesome article! I’m fascinated to hear that there’s an option out there for fragranced cut flowers. It’s so true — they just don’t seem special any more, otherwise.
Thanks, Aimee. You know, in New York, where the cut flower options are so plentiful, I sometimes find fragrant flowers, but they’re always seasonal/local–there were heavenly lilacs the last time I was there. So maybe that’s another option–to make it easier for small, local growers to sell their wares at places other than farmer’s markets. I corresponded with Amy Stewart to see if she’d been following the trend, and she noted that small growers are probably already selecting for fragrance.
WANT that gorgeous White O’Hara rose. There is no material thing on this earth I love more than a fragrant white rose.
It is gorgeous, isn’t it? I think it will be available fairly soon. If you go to http://www.alexandrafarms.com they have a link where you can request a list of purveyors. Maybe you have a florist nearby who will carry it!
Alyssa, Thank you so much for this article. I just went to the lovely website of Alexandra Farms and am looking very forward to finding out more about their roses and where they can be purchased.
Hope there’s a florist nearby you!
How about an old fashioned French Rose? Let’s all see how many perfumista’s go nuts over the french line, Delbard. They have a Mitsouko and a Nahema rose.
http://www.delbard-direct.fr/tous-nos-produits/rosiers/rosiers-grimpants-et-lianes/rosier-grimpant-nahema.html
Only in France…!
But now I’m dying to smell the Mitsouko. Do you think it is a spicy peach rose?
I highly doubt they could get Mitsouko into a rose – it is most likely a rose that favors a peach honey aroma. But then I am just guessing – it might be totally fab.
Peach honey would be plenty fab for me!
I love roses and rose scents and though I have never smelled any of the Delbard roses, I have a beautiful book called Diary of A Rose Lover by Henri Delbard with gorgeous watercolors by Fabrice Moireau and all of the text is in handwriting and is beautifully poetic. It is an absolute must for any rose lovers of any kind. I don’t think it is in print any longer, but can be found through second market sellers.
Oh that sounds just lovely…
You’re so lucky to live near that particular grocer!
I used to grow roses….but got very tired of only growing fat deer.
so now I have mostly things that deer don’t like…and if I do have something deer like–then I don’t have it for long! (darn fat deer)
But I used to have a floribunda rose called Sheila’s Perfume…OMG it was absolutely gorgeous smelling! I also had a rose called George Burns (!!) and it was lovely smelling as well. Next to it was planted (you guessed it) Gracie Allen, which had very little scent. But I felt it was only right to plant them together. Most of my roses were chosen for scent.
Azout told me I was lucky, too!
Gracie and George, I love that. The Austin nurseries are full of deer prevention devices, too bad about yours…
it would make me just physically ill to come out in the morning and find 50+ rose bushes all de-nuded of flowers and buds. running across the yard, screaming, waving arms, all in disreputable, holey football jersey….scary to everyone except stupid fat deer.
Now I have things like daffodils… no tulips, which by the way seem to be delicious…
Aargh!
They eat my mother’s daylilies, too.
Daisy – I had my biggest rose garden when I was married and lived in the country of N. Va. We had lots of deer but for whatever reason, they left my roses alone and munched on the wild pears instead.
Daisy – I totally feel your pain! The roses and day lilys get eaten by the deer every year. This year I decided to just go for it – I put my roses in containers nearby the porch and then I actually used a combination of diapers and fabreeze to keep the deer away. It kind of worked – none of my David Austin’s got munched (except by inchworms!). But now I have to worry about the killer winter up here – I lost a super gorgeous deep purple floribunda that smelled like heaven to the winter. It was a mystery rose, so I don’t know about how to replace it. I am hopeful that the wild prairie roses will outlive the deer – they only open for a few weeks in the spring, but they smell amazing!
Deer also like peonies, so my sister tells me – sadly, because she likes both deer and peonies and was disappointed to discover that they are mutually exclusive.
I am thrilled to hear that someone is actually trying to breed roses that smell good. So few do, although there are some hearty breeds wehave here in Texas that aren’t bad at all.
Maggie, have you ever been to the Old Rose Emporium in Brenham? They’re dedicated to growing “old roses” (pre-hybrid tea) and participate in Texas “rose rustling.” I’m planning to write about them soon. They told me the best time to see (and smell!) the roses was October.
Make that “Antique Rose Emporium.”
I have over 50 roses in my garden, and many of them are from the Antique Rose Emporium. Actually, April is probably the very best time to see and smell them, as a number of antique roses are “once a year” bloomers that put out just one big flush of bloom in the spring. Those types or roses usually bloom for about a month, but in that month a mature shrub can produce hundreds of blooms. For the repeat blooming types, October is the second best time, and it is coming up soon. By all means go there if you can–it is well worth seeing. Midsummer is not good, as the Texas heat tends to make roses go semi-dormant.
With regard to scent notes in roses, “rose” is just one of the words used to describe the fragrance of roses. Other common scent types include citrus, myrrh, licorice, clove, raspberry, and violet. To my nose, the roses do not actually smell strictly like the names–for example, a “clove” scented rose does not smell like cloves, it is more like a combination of rose plus spice. A “raspberry” scented rose is like rose with fruity overtones, etc. The purest “rose” scents probably belong to the damask roses, which are, after all, on e of the classes traditionally used in perfumery.
What you did not mention is that, aside from fragrance, what antique roses possess that many modern roses do not, are toughness and an attractive growth form. Hybrid teas, for the most part, tend to be fussy and disease-prone, and grow on gangly, rather unattractive bushes. Antique varieties are tough as nails, and tend to have full, rounded shapes that make nice shrubs even when they are not blooming. In case you cannot tell, I LOVE antique roses, and have been going more and more toward the antique varieties in my garden.
Hey! There you are! I was hoping you’d come by and tell us everything (or at least some) of what you know.
As I mentioned to Odonata, below, old roses, with their toughness and their scent, are what convinced me I could love garden roses after all. I love the way they’ve been embraced in Texas. They seem sort of Texan to me, actually–showy, but tough-as-nails.
That’s a great tip about the ARE. The owner actually told me to come in October, but maybe that’s because they stop shipping roses in May? If I don’t get down there in the next few weeks I’ll know that I have a second chance.
Sounds like I should just keep driving South and go visit your yard while I’m at it, lol.
50 Roses – I love knowing the origination of your screen name! I had thought that it might mean that you had 50 bottles of rose perfumes! Do you even like rose perfume?? I find that as a rose lover, I don’t like the perfumes as they are always such a disappointment compared to the real thing.
Thanks so much for all of your great information!
I like *some* rose perfumes ( I assume you mean ROSE perfumes, as in soliflores, or rose-centered scents, not merely perfumes containing some rose, which would be a large percentage of feminine fragrances). I don’t actually own one yet–I find that many of them either turn sour on my skin, or else are too sweet and cloying. I have been trying some of them, as I feel that I ought to own at least one rose perfume, since I like roses so much. I do like YOSH Sottile very much–it is neither too sour nor too sweet, lasts forever even on my perfume-eating skin, and smells exactly like a fresh rose. My nose interprets it as “wet”, as if the rose had dewdrops or raindrops on the petals. I also like Czech and Speake Dark Rose, and may buy a FB of that before long.
The C&S Dark Rose has been on my list forever, and Alyssa’s comment here yesterday had me adding Paestum Rose. Most rose scents turn very soapy on my skin. Have you tried Guerlain’s Nahema? If you’d like to, email me at rappleyea11 at yahoo dot com.
*tears* I ADORE roses. Not just roses, but scented flowers in general. I am so, so happy to hear there are people working to preserve and propagate scented roses (and other flowers). I’ve tried growing roses myself, but I have a black, black, black thumb instead of a green one
It is comforting to know they’re out there, isn’t it?
I am a terrible gardener right now, but I plan to be a much better one in my old age.
No, take it from me – it takes too much energy in your old age! lol!
Hee, hee! Well maybe I’ll have some nice, strapping young man to order around…;-)
Great article! I too reflexively sniff flowers – even ones I know don’t smell! There is a rose garden in Balboa Park here in SD and although I’m not a huge fan of the flower or its fragrance, it’s truly amazing to see the wide variety of types and sizes and colors and even smells within the rose family.
I used to dislike roses, because I thought of them as stiff, formal, and too fussy in terms of care, but there’s quite a movement for old garden roses here in Texas, and now that I love the old ones it’s easy to see getting the rose bug… And yes, there are so many smells!
When I lived in the Pacific NW, I was planting roses in the backyard of my house which had been built in 1912. I was trying to plant flowers that would have been in gardens of that era, which is how I found old-garden or heirloom roses. My all time favorite is Mm. Isaac Pereire – the fragrance of just one bloom would perfume the entire house. And it’s a beauty, too.
http://woodlandrosegarden.com/rose/rose2/mme_isaac_pereire.htm
I love your idea of planting roses from the era of the house–like friendly botanical ghosts! I have a wonderful book called “The Fragrant Gardner,” that came out around the time of the Great Depression, and the author is already lamenting that the fragrant varieties of flowers her grandmother used to grow are being lost.
Many rosarians consider Mme. Isaac Pereire to be the most fragrant rose of all. Actually, almost all the Bourbon roses are highly fragrant. I have Zephirine Drouhin on my patio fence, and I love to smell the blooms.
So interesting. I love all the history behind these flowers.
If you see this, 50, could you recommend a good book on roses–no necessarily for planting and growing them, but for knowing their history and development. (Preferably written by someone who describes smell!)
Probably the best overall reference is “The Ultimate Rose Book” (Stirling Macoboy, Abrams, New York). It is aimed at growers of roses, as it has entries for 1900 varieties of roses, describing the color, growth requirements, scent, etc., grouped by types (wild roses, old garden roses, modern roses, and miniatures), each with a color photograph, which I much appreciate. There are also articles on various topics, such as the rose in China, the rose in poetry, the fragrance of roses, the search for the blue rose (there is no such thing, BTW), and so forth. There is a fair amount of history, and it is a really beautiful book. It is a large book, about 10′ x 14′, and not cheap. The retail price is $75, but you might bge able to find a used copy for less. There was an earlier edition as well. I have quite a few gardening books for reference, but this is the one I go to for info on roses.
BTW, please do not come by my yard LOL. This summer was so hot, and there were so many mosquitoes, that I really let it go and the flower beds are completely overrun with weeds. I have confidence, however, that when I do clear them out the roses will still be alive, although the drought probably set them back a bit. My system is that anything that cannot take it gets replaced. That way, I will eventually have a garden full of tough and beautiful plants. I have had a good track record with roses, though. Last year I lost 12 azaleas from the drought, but only 2 or 3 of my nearly 60 roses.
Heh I think SM is an Aussie?? Yes roses are drought tolerant, perhaps disliking humidity more than dry. (I am in the dreaded black spot zone)I have a few David Austins, where he seems to have crossed HT;’s with old varieties. My all-time favorite, ‘Jude the Obscure’ is blooming now, it really does have an incense-y quality to its heady scent. When I know its out, I simply have to make a trek to it and inhale!
Thanks for the reference!
And your yard is safe from me, LOL! I like your system, though. That’s the one I have, by default. Right now the results are unattractive because we, um, haven’t bothered to actually plant anything, and when the sprinkler system broke down we just let it stay that way. But someday, someday…when the planets of No Deadlines and Money are in one of their rare alignments…
Oh! An incense rose! I’ll be dreaming of that one tonight…
I have a small patio garden, so only have one rose: Zephyrine Drouhin! Oh! It has such a heavenly rose scent — rosy, violet with a little lemon. Perfect in every way, until the black spot sets in…
Yes, mine gets black spot too, and I do not spray with anything toxic, as I have herbs growing nearby. I have found a copper-based fungicide that seems to work well, and which is labeled as acceptable for organic gardening. It doesn’t actually destroy the black spot that is already there, but it seems to stop it from spreading. You can also try sulfur-based sprays. Sulfur is actually found in a number of common foods (eggs, onions, etc.), so it is OK to use on or near edible crops. Incidentally, the herbs seem to help keep the bugs away, although they do nothing to keep the fungus away. The old varieties of roses, though, seem to just recover from setbacks so well. They may drop some leaves, but they grow new ones so quickly.
Oh, Zeph is on my list for next spring!!! So gorgeous! I always joke with my husband that I wish I’d named our daughter Zephyrine!!
Just be aware that, as with most “climbers”, Zephirine can take a few years to really show her stuff. Mine had no blooms the year I planted her, and only 3 or 4 the second year. It wasn’t until the 4th or 5th year that I got a really good display out of her, and that was all in the spring. It took another couple years before she began to show the repeat blooming trait. It has definitely been worth the wait. Zeph has been in my garden now for 8 seasons, and now gives me a wonderful huge spring display, occasional scattered blooms during the summer, and a smaller but still beautiful autumn bloom. Be sure to give her plenty of room, as the canes can grow up to 10 or 12 feet in length. I stretch them out more or less horizontally and tie them to the patio fence to encourage more flowering laterals.
Thanks for the tips!!
50 Rose, the Bourbons were my favorites. Boule de Neige, Zephirine Drouhin, Reine Victoria – loved them all!
Hi Alyssa: Thanks for this article. The book sounds a bit interesting, as does the new micro-trend toward less mass production. I do wonder how biologically safe and sustainable Alexandra Farms are?
Unfortunately, most of the world still wants (and mostly can only afford) mass production for the lowest price possible. I’m most concerned about the working conditions, low wages, pesticide use, and environmental degradation attached to the global floral industry. Even the average subdivision gardener uses so many agrochemicals that end up polluting heaven knows what… just to have that perfect lawn. I like to not dwell on thinking about how destructive it all is — give me a fragrant blossom from a garden designed with local native species any day over some non-native showpiece that requires extreme measures to grow out of its element.
Check these documentaries about the paradoxes of the flower industry:
(Kenya) http://www.journeyman.tv/60147/documentaries/a-blooming-business.html
(Ecuador fair trade) http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2008/02/ecuador_a_rosie.html
(Colombia) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2hTTkr2KuQ
Joe, its a good question, about sustainability and working conditions. Stewart addresses those issues in her book–more on working conditions than sustainability, though. There has been a lot of movement within the trade on both fronts in recent years. Farms can be certified organic, and there’s a “Fairtrade” certification as well that is similar to the certification for chocolate, and there’s a group that growers can join–forget the name right now–that has fairly stringent labor and growing standards, but that also acts as a guild to support its members.
When all’s said and done, though, agribusiness is agribusiness. It’s very difficult for mass production and sustainability to co-exist. The irony is–as Trygve Harris of Enfleurage pointed out to me–that many of the smaller farms that treat workers better and use sustainable methods out of necessity can’t afford the cash it takes to go through the certification process.
Slightly OT–I often wonder about these issues for the growing and harvest of aromatic flowers–roses, tuberoses, ylang ylang and so on. We hear a lot about natural vs. synthetic, but hardly anything about sourcing….
Joe – you are more brave than I am. I was thinking along the same lines, but deleted my response above that was a litle rambling. I spent a lot of time this past spring doing research on roses for my container garden (roses for container and winter hardy) and in the process learned a lot about how these new old fashioned roses are propigated. It is a lot of science, genetic cross breeding, and effort – taking up to 10 years to get a viable plant that looks good and smells great and can be sold on the market – esp. the american market where there is more money to be made. We are all celebrating these efforts for great smelling roses, but it is also a lot of the same genetic engineering techniques that the same high end shoppers poo-poo for their foods. No one wants frankenfoods, but we’re all happy if we have a gorgeous old fashioned frankenrose. I was a student of anthropology so I appreciate how cross breeding is desirable to get a better outcome, and I love the frankenrose too. I’m just pointing out that humans have always loved to tamper with nature and plants, and that also includes our foods as well. You can’t really be super happy about recreating through moden high tech cross breeding techniques an old fashioned rose that died out during WW1, and then on the same turn be unhappy that our grains and foods are also reengineered using the same techniques as well. It is a quandry for sure.
Lovely post. I’m no rose expert but certainly a lot of the most fragrant are spicy. My fond (slightly sad) memory is of my mother’s long-gone tea rose that smelled strongly of cinnamon. The “potpourri” effect of a lot of spices in a rose scent, however, can stray into Glade territory. I don’t know why it doesn’t work out better… saffron/rose is lovely.
I’ve had great success at Heirloom Roses. There’s a very fragrant climber called Darlow’s Enigma that blooms in shade, all summer. The flowers are small and single-petaled but the smell and rebloom more than compensate.
Hey there, March, thanks for commenting! I thought of you and your mother’s roses as I wrote this. Darlow’s Enigma (what a great name–that’s a whole other post) sounds lovely. Those single-petaled roses seem to reserve all their energy for scent, don’t they?
Just as you wouldn’t want to accompany me to the fabric store (I go straight for the silk and burrow in), I’m not pleasant to accompany to the nursery, as I go straight for the roses and start sniffing. It’s often a disappointment. My favorite roses, though, planted themselves in the yard of the house where I grew up. Simple petals, but a deep deep crimson color and a sharp peppery scent.
What a wonderful childhood memory to have. And love the idea of a peppery rose…
Thanks for the wonderful post Alyssa! I am going to order one of the potted roses for my Mom’s 60th birthday next month (she has several lovely fragrant roses in her Miss Havisham-like garden)- and I think I may have had the pleasure to see and smell these in one of the high-end grocery stores here in San Antonio (or a similar small rose farm)- either way the ones I admired were glorious and smelled divine.
If you were at Central Market, they were probably from Alexandra Farms. And if they weren’t, I sort of want to know where they *are* from–more fragrant rose growers, yay!
I was at Central Market
Ah, good to know! Aren’t we lucky to have them? I think of CM as Whole Foods with lower prices and way less pretension…
I can’t remember why but my senior year, I was in the room when my art teacher received some lovely yellow roses from her husband. Truly gorgeous. But when she passed them around and I sniffed them: PLASTIC. She saw me and, knowing my passion for perfume, she asked me what I thought.
Tactlessly, I said, “Plastic.” And she laughed, smelled them again, and agreed. And pointed it out to everyone else in the room. It was really humorous but when I say I don’t like roses, that’s why. (Though at my old house, we had a rose bush of Mermaid roses and they smelled AMAZING. And they were gorgeous.”
A tangent: she wore No 5 and it was the first time I realized that it WAS gorgeous, just not on me.
That’s a great story. And a good example of how breeding only for looks can really distance people from something lovely–I think of all those tasteless strawberries and tomatoes, too.
BTW–nearly all mauve roses (mauve is the name used to describe all shades of “purple”, from pale lavender to violet to deep purple) are intensely fragrant, as are most apricot colored roses. Both of these colors were common among old garden varieties. The majority of red roses are either scentless or only lightly scented. It is worth noting that there are no true reds among the antique roses–the closest you get is a deep crimson pink. Also, in general, the most disease-resistant, hardy, tough, heat-, drought-, humidity-, and flood-tolerant roses are usually (though not always) pink in color. This does not mean that all pink roses are tough–just that a majority or really tough roses are pink. I am not a pink person in general–it just is not my color–but pink roses rule!
Very interesting. Stewart mentions a rose called “Lavande” in her book that is fragrant. It’s sold mostly to brides…
It makes me think, too, about what suckers we humans are for the color red. All that poetry for red roses, and they’re not even the best ones!
There are some highly fragrant red roses–Chrysler Imperial and Mister Lincoln, for example (both of them are HTs). On the whole, however, they are not the best for fragrance.
I collect David Austin roses, and I can attest that not only are they very fragrant but most of them are rudely healthy as well. My favorites are the myrrh-scented types, such an amazing and unexpected aroma coming from a flower!
When I’m out at the Antique Rose Emporium I’ll have to get them to show me a myrrh scented rose… I adore Paestum Rose and it is all about the myrrh.
Alyssa, if you can choose just one, do try the blush-pink Austin rose St. Cecilia, it will blow you away! It is also hardy and healthy. Others I love in the myrrh category are Perdita, Scepter’d Isle and St. Swithuns.
Don’t know if I can grow it, but I’ll definitely smell it. *scribbles note to self* Will say that I have an extremely fragrant red rose of indeterminate nature–it was a gift–that’s been growing in a container full of terrible dirt with no drainage and no care for three years now. I”m almost afraid to give it some love…
Hi Flora – I like the myrrh scented DA’s too. I was a bit disappointed in my Perdita though – maybe next year after it gets more establishd. It didn’t really smell like anything at all, but it performed very well. I was particularly thrilled with my Eglantyne though – it grew like a weed and bloomed like crazy from a container and smelled gorgeous – no fading either!! I want more of them for next year.
I have roses-no deer but wallabies and possums that strip them of their buds and flowers when I forget to put out apples for them to eat! My favourite is a David Austin Perdita- apricot and very scented-that is planted near the front door. Its out in bud now-so I am putting apples out every evening in hope that the buds last long enough to bloom!
Apples! What a kind, cant-we-just-get-along method of pest control. And Debbie, we have plenty of possums but I can’t tell you how exotic it sounds to my U.S. ears to be pestered by wallabies.
We have numerous marspupials roaming the garden daily- mainly the wallabies but also bandicoots (which dig up grubs from the garden but leave it in a mess) and bettongs- all very cute! We also have Rosella parrots, gallahs and white parrots that eat the rose buds! Some years I spend spring and summer just crying over my stripped roses.
Bandicoots and bettongs! It just gets better and better…
Ah yes very very cute…..but all destructive in the garden!
Hey Debbie: my Perdita is a near dud for fragrance – any tricks? I try to keep it out of the direct sunlight for mid day b/c it was opening too fast and fading out. But this is the first year and it grew really well, had 5 flushes, but little fragrance. Maybe it will smell better after it grows a few more years???
I did very well with Ambride and Eglantyne. My Scepter’d Isle is slow to get a move on this year.
Fragrance is a funny thing–many sources claim that Belinda’s Dream has a strong scent, but the two in front of my house have only a slight scent at best. I still love them though. Dozens of huge, long-lasting blooms 8 or 9 months out of the year, no pests, no diseases, no special care requirements, and they love the heat.
My Perdita has a strong spicy smell- but maybe it was labelled incorrectly in the nursery! Its a pale apricot that fades to nearly creamy white! The flowers never last long once picked-but they dont last long if I leave them on the bush either!
My Perdita really acts like it’s iceberg papa – so maybe it’s just the luck of the genetic draw – they certainly can’t all act the same even though I’m sure DA wishes they did. The blooms open like a floribunda – wide and ruffly and nearly ivory – and they really stick around for many days if I don’t cut them off. If I bring a bud inside and it opens slowly, it shows a trace of quartering, but not much. It would be good filler – really robust.
Oh and I forgot to mention- what beautiful roses in the picture!
Oh how I hope the good smelling cut roses will find their way to Sweden as well. Fascinating article, Alyssa!
I have very smalll garden but try to cram in roses where I can. My favourite is a climber called Rosa Helenae Hybrida or Semiplena. It has showers of small light yellow flowers with a wonderful fragrance I have never been able to put into words… In Swedish we call it a Honey Rose, which might give you a clue :).
I love the image of a “showers of small light yellow flowers,” thank you. I’m glad you have a summer long enough to grow roses in…
I dream of finding roses such as these for bouquets!
I’ve been growing David Austin roses practically since they were first introduced in North America — my first ones, which we drove across country bare-root on a road trip, included Abraham Darby and Graham Thomas.
Tallulah, you can request that your local florist carry these, or write to the company for a current list of their suppliers. They might already be nearby!
David Austin has a lot of fans on here today…
Oh! I want a Graham Thomas but I don’t have enough space for it. Lucky duck!
Beautiful article, Alyssa.
Makes me want to get some land again and grow things. Growing up, I could never understand why everyone went on and on about roses. Yes, they were beautiful, but they didn’t smell like anything. I asked my mother why but she didnt know. She gave me rose perfume to smell so I knew what roses smelled like. I asked her where that scent came from. and she said roses. I have always been a generally logical person, so as you can understand, I could not figure out the circular logic of this. Rose smell comes from roses but roses don’t smell…………very confusing for small brains!
My mother tried to solved the mystery when one day I came home from camp and, lo and behold, there was a rose bush in the back yard. I had to wait until the next year, but when the roses bloomed on that climber, they were wonderfully smelly! So beautiful! Those roses were allowed to climb over the entire wall which was just over six feet tall. Then I knew what all the fuss was about and I happily got on the “roses smell wonderful” train.
Thank you, Alyssa, for reminding me of this memory!
Wow, that’s quite a story. I think about that kind of thing a lot–what will happen if small children grow never tasting a carrot or a strawberry of a peach that’s truly ripe and delicious? Why would they ever bother to eat their vegetables?
So glad your mother made the roses happen for you!
Me too. She was a scent person as well and she tried her best. Her favourites were Mitsouko and Caleche My mother is gone now, so each one of these little remembrances is even more special. So, once again, I thank you for reminding me.
The pleasure is mine, truly–what a lovely way to remember her…
Great news folks – I just bought this as well as Diary of a Rose Lover, both used but in excellent condition, from Amazon for $8.00 for both books including shipping!! Seems books are a lot less expensive than perfume!
Yay you! Great snag and kudos!
I have both habits, books and perfume. Let me tell you – I do not want to count up what either would cost for abn entire year. Let’s just say, ignorance is bliss!
LOL! At least Amazon doesn’t ask me to do quarterly reporting like our lady of fragrance, Donatella does! BTW, there were plenty more of both of these books available used. Just sayin’….
Oh! I am shocked!
Enabler! Watch, before the end of the day, I may end up doing just that. 
Yup! Bought books (hangs head in shame…….) One I couldn’t get. Apparently they don’t deliver that particular book to my particular boonies. Oh well, I saved me a Diary price.
Books & perfume – yay! It’s been books forever for me and now recently perfume. What fun life can be. Amazon is amazing. I am so grateful to be able to search the internet these past years to find book treasures and now of course perfume also. I do still try to give small book shops my business whenever I can because there is nothing like browsing through shelves of books and stumbling upon a treasure, especially in a lovely used bookstore. But for us book lovers, the internet opened up a much wider range of availability. Anyway, I hope you enjoy Diary of a Rose Lover. It is a feast of information & visual beauty presented poetically.
Definitely agree about the small and/or local book shops. And thank you so much for recommending this book! I can’t wait to get it; I’m sure I’ll love it.
Antique roses for me here in the woods of central Fla. I have a Souvenier de la Malmaison that has lovely creamy blossoms w/ a pink tinge, but what I go crazy for is the sticky resin on the soft spines covering the buds and just under the open blossoms. It is very peppery and green in an oddly wonderful way. I believe I read that it inherited this feature from a moss rose ancestor. Anybody else notice this?