You're welcome! It's not odd that cooler zones will report more fragrance from many than warmer areas. Those in the cooler places are probably smelling them when the oils and alcohols are most volatile and smell the most. We in the warmer areas often miss out because they evaporate faster as the heat increases. Also, as aridity increases, the scents burn out faster. The various components of each rose's fragrance evaporate at different rates, so one may smell very Damask at first, quickly morphing into orris or citrus, finishing a completely different scent before losing any detectable trace for the day. Any user can access the Advanced Search, but Premium Membership permits you to specify multiple traits and types, where basic membership only provides Advanced Search using one criteria. Kim

Hi Msgirl: I love your honesty .. I looked up El Catala on HMF, and I broke out laughing when I saw 3' in height .. translate to a slow & wimpy rose. Heirloom Roses is notorious for small root & slow start. Now they raise the price to $27 per band !! If the root is big & solid, then it flowers sooner (roses from Weeks & star are grafted on Dr. Huey, see below). http://scvrs.homestead.com/Rootstock.html I got roses from Heirloom Roses as own-roots and their roots were like alfalfa-sprout, instead of big & long & woody like Dr. Huey. High Country Roses in Colorado sells BIGGER own-roots at $14 per band (they ship to Hawaii). I got Austin roses from them with blooms on !! About Dr. Huey rootstock: They are native to alkaline region, thus most healthy in alkaline clay. Dr. Huey itself tends to mildew, so high potassium helps. If your soil is acidic, then raise the pH with lime to above neutral. Lime will supply calcium besides raising soil pH. Decades ago my neighbor bought a bunch of grafted-roses-on-Dr.Huey, he planted in our rock-hard clay at 7.7, and they were blooming like mad & zero diseases. I was jealous since I had just moved from an ACIDIC clay region, and gave up on roses due to black spots. Since Dr. Huey is a woody-root, calcium should be supplied at 1/2 of potassium. Calcium is what makes plant tissue firm, thus more resistant to pests like thrips, mites, and aphids. When nitrogen is supplied via chemical, the quick burst of growth makes plant tissue softer, more susceptible to pests. I have been growing tomato for 30 years, and the only 2 years with big-fat tomato worms, plus blossom-end-rot were the years I used chemical fertilizer 10-10-10. Other years with ORGANIC slow-released nitrogen like manure, cocoa mulch, alfalfa .. no worms, no blossom-end-rot, since those ORGANIC sources supply low-nitrogen, decent potassium & calcium & trace elements.

Low nitrogen & Low phosphorus and high potassium & calcium was what helped with my Betty White. Both high nitrogen and high phosphorus attract thrips. High potassium & calcium (2 part potassium to 1 part calcium) helped with Betty White. It's short since I use low-nitrogen. My garden is no-spray and I use organic fertilizers: horse manure, alfalfa meal and just a tiny bit of chicken manure NPK 2-4-3 (Coop Poop), plus red-lava-rock for high potassium & calcium. Below top bloom is Betty White: Below Left is Evelyn, right is Betty White:

To me, the most fragrant Austin, and my favorite, is The Prince, which smells like an old-fashioned garden rose, like something that would be in a grandmother or great-grandmother's garden. Close runner-ups would be Munstead Wood, which has a very rich fragrance with whiff of berries, and Jude the Obscure, which smells like the Annick Goutal perfume, Eau d'Hadrien. I just started growing Evelyn, and the scent is not powerful (yet), but it is really unique, unlike any rose I've ever smelled. It sort of smells delicious, like you could eat it. The Alwick Rose is also one of my most fragrant, it smells like Raspberries, but also a bit like cake. Lady Emma Hamilton is really also great for scent. I don't get as powerful of a fragrance from Young Lycidas as the roses I mentioned above, but it is quite lovely, and on par with Summer Song in that they both smell great and and are original in every way. They not only have unique fragrances but colors that aren't found in other roses that i have seen, really exceptional in that way. However, while all they are both are healthy, they have sort of gangly/spindly habits, so are perhaps best planted among other plants that will sort of support and fill in for the lankiness. So beautiful though. Jubilee Celebration also gets honorable mention for original scent, in particular, and color as well, but will possibly disappear off the market soon, I have heard. There was a discussion above about the white roses. I have Glamis Castle, Desdemona, Claire Austin, and William and Catherine. None of their perfumes are that powerful in my garden, and I don't see that much of a difference in their flowers. Desdemona perhaps has the most complex fragrance. William and Catherine and Glamis Castle have that very "myrrh" fragrance that some people love or hate (so does the lovely mauve Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which I personally adore), as does Wollerton Old Hall, which has a bit more myrrh than I expected (I kept hearing things, like "honey, etc.) but does smell very sweet and rather strong (and it's only in its first summer). William and Catherine has an attractive and compact bush and is super healthy. Claire Austin needs a lot of space and mine is 15 years old and never better. Desdemona has been floppy and thrown out many octopus canes so am not super enchanted by it yet. Glamis Castle is still a newbie so too soon to tell but it has given me an impressive number of blooms in the 3 or 4 months I have had it (own root). Of the more recent additions, I couldn't get either Gabriel Oak or Eustacia Vye to take off. Emily Bronte in year two, finally, has some repeat bloom and her fragrance is really lovely, and growing on me, and perhaps rivals Evelyn's, but is a bit different. But the one rose that seems to have the most fragrance projection power has to be Mary Rose, which I planted at the end of last summer because it is supposed to bloom all the time, unlike many trickier varieties. And it really does. And the day or so, it is not in bloom, it is remarkable by the absence of its fragrance, which smells like expensive beauty products and adds a note to the overall perfume of the garden but is not the best rose to take inside because it grows in clusters. Golden Celebration smells sweet and lovely, and its cheefuly yellow color makes it remarkable, but in my opinion, the fragrance is perhaps a bit over-hyped in the marketing materials, even if also amazing. I personally don't get strawberries from it. However, mine is only in year one. Abraham Darby also has one of the most complex scents, but mine are still in there first year, so the fragrance is not that powerful yet. Hope this helps anyone trying to figure this out!