About Central Florida Gardener

Welcome and thank you for visiting Central Florida Gardener. Florida is a unique state in which to garden. It can be frustrating but also rewarding for gardeners who persevere. This blog was created as a resource for Florida gardeners, both new and experienced, in search of information specifically for Florida gardens.

You are invited to participate by leaving your comments, suggestions, tips and recommendations relevant to Florida gardening - don't be shy! Thank you for dropping by to learn more about gardening in the Sunshine state. I look forward to hearing from you! Susan

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Fragrance in the Garden - Part 2: Roses

You can't have a discussion about fragrant plants without including roses. We might assume that all roses are fragrant but many of the hybridized varieties no longer have the wonderful scents associated with roses.

Two avid rose-growing Florida garden bloggers...Flowerlady at  Flowerlady's Musings and Sherry at If only sweat were irrigation...grow many varieties of roses (both modern and vintage) in their gardens. Both of their blogs are a wealth of information to anyone who's interested in growing roses successfully in our heat and humidity. Thankfully, both of them have generously contributed their thoughts, as well as a list of the most fragrant roses growing in their gardens.

While roses may not heavily perfume the air like Confederate jasmine or orange blossoms do, it's hard to see a rose and not automatically press your nose up to the ruffly mass of petals to inhale the sweet smell associated with these flowers.

Belinda's Dream
Scent is one of the things Flowerlady looks for when buying a rose. She said "To me if a rose doesn't have a scent, it's almost not worth having." Her favorite fragrant rose is Chrysler Imperial which she describes as having a deep rose scent.

Three other nicely scented roses in her garden are: Don Juan (climber), Maman Crochet and Maggie.

Her list of roses that emit a delicate, lighter scent are:
Cocktail
Kathleen
Prosperity
Penelope
La Marne Mm.
Laurette Messimy
Bon Silene
Old Blush
Dainty Bess
Louis Philippe
Pink Pet

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Sherry is a very passionate rose grower as evidenced by her response to my request for a list of fragrant roses growing in her garden. She wrote "Susan, I had a new flower on my baby Marchesa Boccella this morning. Wow! So strong and delicious! Damask like Chrysler Imperial but a beautiful pink flower with a bottom eye." You can just feel Sherry's passion...can't you?

Her list and description of scents include:
Mrs. B.R. Cant - "a strong sweet raspberry scent that is to die for"
Duchesse de Brabant - "smells like Southern sweet iced tea to me, but others say raspberry"
Duquesa - has a strong tea scent plus an additional fragrance that she can't quite put her finger on. She describes it as "yummy" and as strong as Mrs.B.R.Cant.
LaSylphide - "astonishingly smells like Lily of the Valley"
Clotilde Soupert - "is a polyantha and has a fairly strong fragrance"
Cotillion - "a modern floribunda that has a strong and luscious scent"
Gruss an Aachen - "An early floribunda (1909), is simply wonderful. Great fragrance."
Leonie Lamesch - "a very nice, light scent"
Louis Philippe - "smells like cherry candy"
Napoleon and Archduke Charles - "have light scents similar to Louis Philippe but not as strong"
Souv. de la Malmaison - "has a light to medium scent...which some have described as similar to women's face powder"
Capitaine Dyel de Graville - "is a sport of Souv de la Malmaison, but its scent is stronger and more distinct, slightly sweet"
Baronne Prevost (1841) and Mme Scipion Cochet (1872) - "have quite a strong fragrance"
Chrysler Imperial - "strong damask fragrance"
Marchesa Boccella (1842) and Rose de Rescht (pre-1900) - "very nice strong fragrance"

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Mark Nelson who's family (Nelson Roses) has been growing roses in Florida for several generations has listed his favorite scented roses in his book entitled "Nelson's Guide to Florida Roses."

His 11 favorties are:
Belinda's Dream
Chrysler Imperial
Double Delight
Flo Nelson
Scentimental
Granada
Mr. Lincoln
Perfume Delight
Regatta
Saint Patrick
Tiffany

Click here to find a retailer for Nelson Roses in Florida

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The All-America Rose Selections (AARS)  list their top 10 scented favorites as:
Double Delight (1997) - a sweet, spicy scent
Elle (2005) - spicy, citrusy scent
4th of July (1999) - scent is exceptional
Honey Perfume ( 2004) - wonderful, spicy scent
Memorial Day (2004) - highly fragrant
Midas Touch (1994) - warm, musky scent
Mr. Lincoln (1965) - strong scent
Scentimental (1997) - spicy scent
Sheer Bliss (1985) -  mild but sweet fragrance
Sun Sprinkles (2001) - miniature rose

So there you have it from the "expert" rose growers. A nice list of their favorite fragrant roses from which to choose from if you're looking to add some scented beauties to your garden.

Sombreuil
My favorite...a heavenly scented rose growing in my garden is Sombreuil (a hybrid tea - 1850) . Her scent is a STRONG, sweet perfume fragrance that is intoxicatingly wonderful.

Thank you Flowerlady and Sherry for taking the time and generously sharing your knowledge on fragrant roses. Be sure to visit their blogs for more information on growing roses: Flowerlady's Musings and If only sweat were irrigation.

Some additional Florida gardeners who lovingly and successfully grow roses are: Janis at Graceful Cottage Gardening and Kenneth at Musings of a Would Be Renaissance Man.

If you're new to growing roses in Florida you can learn a lot from Flowerlady, Sherry, Janis and Kenneth.


What fragrant roses are growing in your garden?

10 comments:

NanaK said...

What a great, informative post! I have Belinda's Dream which is nicely scented and earlier this year I bought Scentamental because it had such a wonderful and strong scent. I've been warned about Scentamental not being an easy to grow rose, but so far, so good in my garden.

Elizabeth said...

No roses are growing in my garden--sad face.
Some day I hope to have time to garden like this. Right now my small vegetable square foot garden and potted herbs is about all I can handle while raising our 5 beautiful children.
What a lovely post this is!! So much work went into it--great info.
Peace and Raw Health,
Elizabeth

Ami said...

Susan: Thanks for putting together this wonderful post! Thanks FlowerLady and Sherry for their favorite fragrant roses list! I am sure I will come back to this post again and again when I look for another rose for my garden!

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Thank you Susan for this lovely post and for including me. I'm awed to be in the same post as Sherry.

I love my roses and to think someone told me many, many years ago, roses don't grow in FL. Ha. Don't believe everything you hear.

Happy Gardening ~ FlowerLady

sherryocala said...

Susan, fragrance is not an easy subject to convey, but you did an excellent job! I'm honored to share the bill with you and FlowerLady. Thanks for a very good read.

Anonymous said...

Love scented roses...will check out these blogs to learn more about growing roses!

Wicked Gardener said...

I've just discovered "If only sweat were irrigation..." tonight. She's local so I going take plenty of notes!

KathyR said...

Does anyone know where I can find "Belinda's Dream" for sale in Florida? I live in Ocala. Thanks!

Lisa said...

Very informative post. I never know those variety of scented roses until I read your post.

May I know the name of the orange rose posted above? Very lovely looking. I never seen an orange rose in my country, Philippines.

Lisa from Acoustic Guitar Lessons

Anonymous said...

I have hardly any sense of smell but I can smell the arizona rose so I have 3 of them. I can't even smell my gardenias.