fragrant roses

When to Pick Roses for Fragrance

Sandra

If you want to pick a bunch of fragrant roses for the vase it would be best if you picked them when they are almost fully open.

A rose in bud will not give out much perfume.  Also a rose that is over-blown will have lost most of its perfume.

The best time to check for fragrance in a rose garden is around midday when it’s warm – when the sun has had a chance to coax out the perfume.

If the weather is too hot or too cold your roses won’t be able to give out the best fragrance. The rose is too busy protecting itself against the heat or cold.

A happy, relaxed rose is a fragrant rose!

Red roses were traditionally the roses with the most fragrance but more recently because of cross breeding, fragrance is to be found in roses of every shape and colour.

My Top Ten list of Fragrant Roses

Sandra
Double Delight for Fragrance

Double Delight for Fragrance

In the previous post I promised to give you a list of my favourite fragrant roses. Well, I couldn’t limit it to 5 perfect roses so here is my top ten list of the best fragrant roses that I have chosen for my garden.

What is my own personal favourite among all these fragrant roses?

First prize for Fragrance

I have given first prize to Double Delight. It has the strongest and loveliest perfume of all and it’s spectacular to look at with its lovely two tone colour. It also lasts for ages in the vase without dropping its petals. And the bush is prolific and strong. A really superb rose.

So here is my choice for the top ten most fragrant roses – in no particular order. They all have a wonderful fragrance and add something special to my rose garden.

Choose any one of the following roses and you’ll be captivated by its lovely perfume.

Double Delight
Duftwolke (Fragrant Cloud)
Just Joey
Mister Lincoln
Garden Queen
Red n Fragrant
Ingrid Bergman
Electron
Pappa Meilland
Crimson Glory

How I chose the best Fragrant Roses for my Garden

Sandra

It was inevitable that I would want to get hold of the best fragrant roses ever! What is a real rose without a perfume?

Unfortunately, so many roses today have been hybridized out of their scents!

But I was not to be daunted. I was determined to find the best fragrant roses out there no matter what their shape or size.

A fragrant rose

A fragrant rose

So I flipped through all the catalogues I could find and tried to choose what were going to be my 5 most highly perfumed roses.

But did it work for me?

Of course not!  You can’t smell a catalogue.

Back to the nursery where I promised myself I wouldn’t buy a single rose this time if it didn’t have a powerful perfume!

So there I was flitting down the nursery path delicately sniffing at each rose like an overweight butterfly!

Don’t go that route!  It’s overwhelming and all you end up with is a bee up your nose!

I’ll save you the bother and tell you what worked for me after much trial and error.  In the next post I’ll tell you about my top 5 fragrant roses.  I promise you – they’re real winners!