My favorite rose scent is probably rugosa, that wonderful blend of cloves and damask. After that I like damask scent from any rose, which is one reason I love Oklahoma, After that comes a quite different perfume, the scent of Rosa moschata.

However my favorite flower scent isn't roses at all. It is lilac.

And my favorite scent of all is line-dried cotton, which I find intoxicating. In fact, weather permitting, I dry most of our laundry out of doors just so I can smell that wonderful fragrance on a regular basis.

Rosefolly

My favorite is and always has been Double Delight, followed closely by one that few people have, Dennis Bridge's Carolina Moon.

there never has been, and never will be, a rose to top the smell of spring primula, english bluebells and japanese honeysuckle - these are the scents of my childhood and resonate for me more than even the most fragrant rose. In truth, fragrance is an optional extra for me, when deciding on what rose - I tend to grow wildlings and singles anyway, which can never compete with philadelphus or deutzias.

Patrick, I remember you talking about your run in with "R. MOSCHATA in-mass."

I agree that "Felicite Parmentier is a favorite."

Now this may seem strange as my wife cannot smell this rose what-so-ever is French Lace. It is highly sharp, refined, and with no coyness.

Quatre Saisons the most pure Damask sweet and fresh and along with that similar damask scented roses such as La Reine and souv.malmaison- then bourbons with damask+fruit such as Madame Issac P.

Damask scented modern roses I love are

Chrysler Imperial
La Reine
Perfume Delight
Papa M.
Frederic M.
Huntington Rose (Alan Titchmarch)

And Damask+citrus are

Tiffany
Heritage
Pink Peace
Lemon Spice
Amazing Grace
Memorial Day
Sonia Rykiel
Radox Bouquet
Pope John Paul II
Lagerfeld (starlight)

Then damask+fruit

Abraham Darby
Jude the Obscure
Rouge Royale
Sterling Silver
Angel Face
Love Potion
Sweet Afton
Oklahoma
Othello

Spicy Sweet roses

Double Delight and Scentimental

The lemony Damasks are my favorites. I really like Tiffany and Pink Peace and JPJII but the complex fruity ones like Jude, Love Potion and Sterling Silver are so changeable and exciting. They can be fascinating and mysterious.

Agree on St. Cecilia as the most amazing myrrh and old rose scent. I prefer it over Sharifa Asma.

Soeur Emmanuelle, Olivia Rose Austin, Mystic Beauty, Summer Romance, Beverly

Rouge Royale--I have a gorgeous bouquet picked tonight scenting my bedroom. Heaven. Diane

I have got to get St. Cecilia and Rouge Royale!!

Chrysler Imperial, Souer Emmanuelle, Parade Day and Memorial Day. :)

This is a great thread for the heavy hitters of fragrance. I agree that it is sometimes hard to separate "strong" from "best". Star of the nile hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll add that one. It smells like the candy Cherry Nibs.

Bela'roma - Strong, and very nice for cutting.

But my favorite is either Lemon Spice

or Typhoo Tea

Just the tip of the Iceberg here........

Great revival of a wonderful old thread!

To my nose, Rosa moschata has one of the best fragrances of all roses. It is so delicious and so pervasive all at the same time!

To a lesser extent (but still powerful), Rosa rugosa and ‘Souvenir de St Anne’s’ have this same sweet/heady clove perfume.

In addition to those listed above, the roses that I think have the BEST perfumes include Crimson Glory, Francis Dubreuil/Barcelona, Bolero, Munstead Wood, Tiffany and Lemon Spice. And I can’t forget the exquisite fragrances of ‘Madame Plantier’ or ‘Felicite Parmentier’ either!

I think that the Pope ( John Paul ) is wondrfully fragrant.

Young Lycidis is Heavenly as is Munstead and the delicious Crimson Glory rounded out by Double Delight..

I've wanted Star of the Nile for a long time...now I need to also get Lemon Spice!! :)

Al - That's so sweet that you're helping your niece get into roses!! I've never grown Felicite Parmentier...but it sure looks lovely!

Al, your Felicite P. is exquisite. I love the center shading. I wish I could get my granddaughters interested in any kind of gardening. One might be a long shot since she at least grows cactus and succulents in her window sill---sigh. Diane

Diane - both of my daughters grow houseplants. The one that might be interested will probably never be able to afford a house. The other one doesn't like to be out in summer (allergies) unless she's hiking. Oh well. :)

I’m new to roses this year so my nose isn’t refined yet, but I can’t hardly wait for Spring when my roses bloom so I can smell all the different fragrances. I’ve had just a few blooms this year (planted late this summer) but of those that I’ve been able to smell, I think Oklahoma has been my favorite. That fragrance is why I gambled and brought her home from HD when I know the tag on it that said hardy to zone 5 was being very generous. That fragrance....it’s worth the extra work to try to keep her coming back.

Marchesa Boccella has such a sweet, lovely fragrance too, even if it’s not as powerful as Oklahoma. My next favorite, so far.

Laura - Marchesa Boccella/Jacques Cartier (if they're the same rose??) smells really lovely...and it blooms all the time. I love this rose! :)

Rosecanadian, yes, I believe it is. That’s what I keep reading, anyway. You have one? It’s a good repeat then? She’s such a gorgeous rose...with that fragrance, hardiness, and good repeat, I wonder why I don’t hear more about it? I ordered mine from A Reverence for Roses and mine, luckily, came with a bloom and a bud about to open. Those buds open quickly too! I‘m just surprised more people aren’t talking about this one. Maybe its disease resistance is’t great?

Mine is 2 years old from a bareroot...and there are always at least 5 blooms on it. Always. Mine has great disease resistance...but we don't get BS here. I think it's a great rose! :)

Laura I love MB! I put her in probably too shady of a spot and she had two flushes and not a smidge of disease all season. This is her first season in my garden and I adore her.

I‘m going to trim the hydrangea next to her in the hopes she can get more sunshine. If she can put on another foot or so she will get an additional two hours of sun. Right now she probably gets three.

I’m so glad to hear she’s pretty disease resistant! She seems to me like 10/10...I don’t know that she has any faults that I can find. Maybe I’ll get another next year.... 😁

Laura - I think you should!! :) :)

Laura have you looked at Duchess de Montebello? Another winner!

Hmmmm....best fragrance is between Charles Darwin and Francis Dubreuil aka Barcelona.

Pippa - you're making me think I should keep my Charles Darwin dud. I keep going back and forth between keeping it another year or not. Now, I'm leaning more on not. :) :)

Oursteelers, I haven’t heard of that one but I’ll check her out!

Bella"Roma seems to be harder and harder to find around the nurseries in Chicagoland. I don't know why, it's a great rose to grow, and should be a Gamble winner some day. I have eight of them scattered throughout my gardens. The smell is sweet and complex and very strong. I would say intense, on the level of Double Delight. It's perfect for cutting as the stems are thick and strong, and last long in a vase. Often flowers come one to a stem, but sometimes I get a cluster. The plant is strongly upright, growing to 5 feet or more for me, and not too spread out. In the fall with cooler weather, the blooms get larger, repeat is excellent.

Al - I've wanted to get Bella'Roma for quite awhile. To hear that it's very fragrant and to see your lovely Bella'Roma blooms...I really, really want it now!!! Your blooms are heavenly!!

Rosecanadian- Thanks for the kind words. Bella'Roma performs very well in my area. When it came out a few years ago, it was easily attainable. I forgot to list that is has nice glossy leaves, and lots of thorns.

Al, what a scrumptious bouquet. You have won me over, and I must check this one out HMF. Do you have more pics that I may have missed of Bella"Roma? Love the name. Diane

Al - thorns don't bother me that much. I would now get this in a heartbeat!!

Diane- Here are some pics I took this morning. I'm having a lot of BS problems, although I spray regularly. I think my chemicals might be getting to old, or maybe I mixed it wrong. The bottom pic has Doris Day on lower left and Sweet Fragrance in the background.

Rosecanadian- I'm with you on the thorns not being a problem, but many people are thorn averse, so I thought I'd better include it in my description.

To me, the rose with the best and most unforgettable fragrance was the once very popular and highly rated floribunda, "Ivory Fashion", which was scented of cloves and whose lovely, white semi-double blooms with reddish stamens lasted a week in the vase.

Roses Unlimited has it, or used to, and the owner said in her catalog that she would always carry it.

The commenters on Helpmefind have this to say:

16 Aug 2007 unregistered guest

I bought this rose in the 'band' form from Vintage Gardens. Although it was just a stick when it arrived, it has produced extremely fragrant roses!! The bush is rather small, as it is very young, but the scent from these ivory blooms is hypnotic!! I wonder why this rose is no longer sold?? I just don't understand the 'rose business' yet!

Reply: 14 DEC 10 York Rose

Just as there are trends in high fashion ("haute couture") there are trends in roses. It's by no means unheard of for highly garden worthy roses to go out of fashion, and to thus become unmarketable. Once they're no longer "the next best thing" sometimes those garden worthy roses vanish from commerce, even if they're excellent roses.

monarda_gw Gene Boerner bred lots of fantastic roses, such as Ivory Fashion and Pink Chiffon. Pink Chiffon has the best FLORAL and myrrh scent, better than the many myrrh Austins in my garden: St. Cecilia, Scepter d'Isle, Mary Magdaglene, and Tess of d'Ubervilles, plus Pink Chiffon lasts longer in the vase than Austin roses.

Al: Thank for those nice pics. of Bella'roma. The weather in Chicagoland is to blame for the blackspots. I congratulated myself on how many shiny & healthy leaves I have on tiny rose rootings (in pots), then after 2 nights and 1 day of non-stop rain, plus cold temp. of 44 this morning, ALL MY 15+ ROOTINGS of many varieties lost 1/2 of their leaves in very-fasting draining rooting medium.

Al - your rose bed is beautiful!! What do you think of Doris Day? Especially the fragrance. :) It sure looks bright (yes!!) in your photo!!

Monarda - ooooh!!! Ivory Fashion's fragrance sounds enchanting!

Straw - Pink Chiffon!!!

Jude the obscure has the best fragrant in my garden

Lynn - those are lovely blooms!!! I wish I could smell those fragrant beauties!!

Thank you, Carol. Can't have enough of them! I have 4 plants which provides me enough for cut

Lynne: Are your Jude in full-sun or partial shade? Thanks for any info.

4 plants!!! How wonderful!!! I did have Jude once...really did poorly and died....but I smelled a few of the blooms...and they were fabulous!!!

I was oohing and aahing when I was smelling my Augusta Luise and Emma Haftl blooms today. Teresa...you did a wonderful job telling me what to do with my ALs...they're really doing so much better! Thank you!!

Straw, when I was a student in North Carolina there was a small rose garden on campus with roses planted in formal blocks, and one bed had 'Pink Chiffon', 'Apricot Nectar', and 'Ivory Fashion'.

One day, shortly after moving there, I walked past the garden (which I tried to do as often as possible) on my way home from class, and the gardner was deadheading the roses -- although they hadn't yet started to fade at all.. He presented me with a large bouquet of clippings and when I took them home the the flowers lasted for 10 days in a vase. The fragrance was heavenly --. a luxury beyond price -- for a poor student. I still think of it.

I realize fragrance is subjective and expectations and so on play a large part in what we perceive, but I agree, for me, none of the Austins measure up to some of these at their best. It is too bad the names were a bit humdrum, esp. in the case of 'Pink Chiffon,' which had an old-rose shaped flower before it became fashionable.

Monarda: I love your story above !! Pink Chiffon, Apricot Nectar, and Ivory Fashion are on my wish-list. They would be way-better than Austin Queen of Sweden, with barely a scent and blows fast within 1 day in the vase ... amazing how David Austin catalog classifies it as best for the vase. I gave stingy Queen of Sweden away but I really miss generous Pink Chiffon (constant bloomer with the most lovely myrrh scent).

When I grew up in Michigan with 8 older sisters, an old man (retired mechanical engineer) gave us few blooms of Peace rose. The scent of that yellow rose was amazing, so fresh !!

That's funny, because back in the day, people complained that Peace didn't have a lot of scent. There was a climbing rose that was almost a ringer for Peace that was very scented, though. If I could only remember the name -- Royal Sunset -- yes, must have been. I never would have imagined that all those blowsy roses would disappear. They.were in every yard. Still were in the 80s and 90s. Below: 'Royal Sunset' link.

[Update: Climbing Peace is said to be fragrant also - but on Helpmefind they say it is not so vigorous]

https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.148798

Rosecanadian- I have 2 Doris Day plants. They are not as vigorous as Julia Child, they tend to get BS here, and the fragrance is medium. So basically, I'm not too impressed.

Strawchicago- I'm going to have to fess up for my BS problems. I just checked my phone calendar and it turns out that I waited 19 days after spraying Flint, to use my Bannermaxx. Should be 14 days max. Oops....

Monarda - I love your story about the gardener and the poor student and the joy from the gift of roses!! Awwww...what a wonderful memory!!

Straw - another wonderful memory!! :)

Al - thank you!! That's what I needed to hear!! :)

Staw, My Jude is full sun facing West. I cut them in the whole summer otherwise they burn in 100+ weather

Maggie/Kakkinada red( strongest ), my nose got too close to the bloom, although delightful, scent was so strong that it stayed there for a while. lesson learned- don't get too close to sniff)

Felicia- hybrid musk (can't describe but it is SO SO good. It's hard to pick a favorite, but this one would be at tippy top)

Francis Meilland(soft pure rose)

Earth Angel(love it)

Lady Ashe(different, strong and perfumy)

La Reinne(strong damask type)

Madame Isaac Pierre,

Jubilee Celebration

Poet's wife- continuous flowering and lemony scent

Dee-Lish

Beverly,

sugar Moon,

Zaide,

First Crush(good scent, soft and rosy but its a thorny beast)

Abraham Darby(so good, raspberries)

PJPII

Princess Charleen de monaco(vanilla rose)

fragrant Plum(very strong and perfumy),

Madame Anisette(I can't smell her much, smells of soft anise which is not my favorite scent on a flower. maybe in a cookie. don't like flowers smelling like cookies) But this plant is amazing for vigor and flower power.

Rugosa alba roses, are a pain as they spread everywhere...but that scent is unforgettable

Purilisa - I loved your discussion about fragrance...so soothing and interesting...mmmmm :)