Since fragrance is subjective, which rose has been your most fragrant?

I love the smell of Abraham Darby, an Austin rose but it is not as strong.

garden

I recently ordered Radiance and Sheila's Perfume, so looking forward to sniffing those. My Tiffany is almost three years old, and a runt that never blooms. I think I have a dud plant, and may start over fresh with a new one.

Picture is of Liv Tyler and Nicole Carol Miller

Ingrid

Sara, either helpmefind is drunk, or they mean that the original Francis Dubreuil (no longer available?) has no scent. The FD currently sold is supposedly the hybrid tea Barcelona, and it is definitely fragrant.

Here's another "stinky" pic. Liv Tyler (pink), Fragrant Cloud (red-ish), Barbra Streisand (mauve), Big Purple (magenta). This was taken last december.

(Edited to change Purple Passion to Big Purple because I got the identity wrong- Big Purple actually isn't super smelly for me, even though it is for others. PP would be the stronger scented of the two to my nose.)

The scent of two Belinda's Dream (new this year) reminds me of their pollen parent Tiffany. Not as strong as Tiffany, but very satisfying with the same notes.

Many of those mentioned here received the Edland or the Gamble Medals (sometimes both) for outstanding fragrance.

Etoille de Lyon, ( the scent has been described as "delicious" by an author, to me it smells of honeysuckle and Chantilly cream.
'Lemon Spice', smells of lemon zest, cloves and nutmeg, oh yum.

Mauve; my neighbors 'Intrigue', and Old Port'

Most fragrant rosebush:
Oddly enough one of the most fragrant is called the 'Incense Rose' for it smells so strongly of incense that when I was at Berkeley Horticultural nursery a few years ago, sitting on a bench, and I began looking around for a Buddhist Temple, for I thought that surely someone must have been burning many sticks of incense for that rich and spicy scent to be pervading the air I breathed. Then my eyesight fell upon the label on the rosebush beside me, which read 'Incense Rose, Rosa Primula' and although there was not a single bloom on either plant, each rosebush was very fragrant. I write "oddly" for The Incense Rose wins its' common name from having fragrant LEAVES!

My father used to say that a rose without scent was useless, it's a strong statement, but when I smell a fragrant rose I want all roses to be fragrant, when a rose is not, it's like an angel without wings... something lovely exists...but it's lacking an essential part.

Lux

Lagerfeld (lav) is lovely if you don't mind unruly growth. I have to be close, as with Mr. Lincoln.

Here's Evelyn not showing a button eye. Love her fragrance altho it's her beauty I truly adore.

It was a strong grower but finally succumbed to my lack of sun.

The fragrance was rich and wonderful.

Very good thread! I would vote for double delight for most fragrant rose to my nose. For a white rose--PJPII, red--mirandy although I have small bands of crimson glory and Frances dubreil and am excited to see if they have fragrance. Pink--beverly, peter mayle, and perfume delight. Orange--fragrant cloud. I don't know of a fragrant yellow interesting enough. I have also heard that madame Isaac periere is very fragrant but I haven't actually gotten to smell it but I have ordered it for spring. I'll let you know!

I agree. Before this year all I cared about was looks, but then something "clicked" in my head. Fragrance is what makes a rose "real" to me, it's so personal. The class of roses I find by far to be the most fragrant are OGRs, most notably Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetual (haven't sniffed a once bloomer yet...). Rugosas can have delicious scent, but Reine des Violettes, Rose de Rescht, and the only HP I've smelled (Enfant de France) knock my socks off compared to any HT. Double Delight, Chrysler Imperial, Mr Lincoln etc smell delicious, bit they are not intoxicating like the Damask descended OGRs.

Last Wednesday I visited the Antique Rose Emporium (yays!), and wow did that place smell amazing. Serious wafting, and so much of it, there was no way to find out which rose (or roses!!) were doing it. Mrs B.R. Cant is one I stuck my nose into, and it had a strong perfume. I don't grow that one though.

What I have noticed among my pot-pet red HTs is that those I have which are descended from 'Crimson Glory' are particularly wonderful, and have only subtle variations on the same scent, which matches that of 'Crimson Glory' -- 'Big Ben', 'Chrysler Imperial', 'Heart's Desire', 'Mirandy', 'Mister Lincoln', 'Nocturne', 'Oklahoma', 'Red Masterpiece', 'Rose of Freedom' and 'Velvet Fragrance'.

'Orfeo' is a climber I have trained into a hacked-back Callery pear (and it has canes nearing 20' long going up into the tree now), and it, too, smells just like its grandparent 'Crimson Glory'. It's the only one of the "family" I have planted in the ground, with one white and one lavender-blue clematis using it as a trellis to get into the tree. I can't wait for next year -- this year, 'Orfeo' bloomed a little for the first time since I planted it last year, so I expect a show in its third year.

Of the most fragrant OGRs, I'd be naming the usual suspects as the most fragrant of what I have from their groups -- three of my Bourbons ('Mme de Sevigne', 'Mme Dore', and 'Souvenir de Victor Landeau'), six of my HPs ('Georg Arends ', "Grandmother's Hat", 'Monsieur Boncenne', 'Pierre Notting', 'Reine des Violettes' and 'Yolande d'Aragon'), both of my Damasks ('Botzaris' and 'Quatre Saisons Blanc Mousseaux'), three of my Damask Perpetuals ('Indigo', 'Rose de Rescht' and 'Rose du Roi, original'), one of the Gallicas ('Georges Vibert'), both Hybrid Chinas ('Duchesse d'Angouleme' and 'Nouveau Monde'), and, of course, 'Rosa moschata' in its single-form, as well as "Secret Garden Musk Climber" (if you count that as an OGR).

Of the Austin roses, I'd give the awards to 'Abraham Darby', 'Golden Celebration', 'Jude the Obscure', 'Prospero', 'Tamora' and 'The Prince'. That leaves 'Happy Child' as the only Austin I have which is not mentioned -- but this came as a band this year, and I've been pinching buds until recently, so can't really offer an opinion.

Interestingly, the roses whose fragrance carries the farthest (i.e. "wafters") tend to be less intensely scented up-close (except, perhaps, for 'R. moschata' and "Secret Garden Musk Climber", which succeed at both). The winners here would be mostly Multiflora-derived (and my handful of Moschata-derived): 'Bubble Bath', 'Clotilde Soupert', "Darlow's Enigma", 'Marie Pavie', 'Mlle Blanche Lafitte', 'Perle d'Or', 'Reverend Seidel', 'Rosa moschata', and "Secret Garden Musk Climber".

This was the second year in the ground for most of my roses, and already the yard was full of yummy scent in May and June. Supporting the roses was a small cast of scented Dianthus which mostly bloomed at the same time. Unfortunately, July and August here was not as knock-your-socks-off, so I have 25 each of mixed Oriental, Trumpet and Orienpet lilies coming with a bulb order in a few weeks which will perfume the yard until the roses rebound from their mid-summer sleep. And various stinky self-seeding annuals will be filling in the gaps.

:-)

~Christopher