vaporvac- mine do have a couple of buds as do my Earth Angel and Poseidon. All of my Kordes look very healthy except for Pink Enchantment, Winter Sun and Kosmos. These didn't survive the winter here.

CoriAnn- I'm glad that theses are doing so well for you. They truly are beautiful.

Okay, so you all know I got Summer romance already with buds. But the weather had kept them from opening. Boy, do they ever smell yummy! I'm not getting the licorice note much, but a sweet tea fragrance with a bit of something fresh. I'd say moderate strength, but maybe when it opens more with the heat we're having it'll get stronger. I'm hoping it's a wafter. Does anyone finds there's wafts?

I have some wafters, but I don't know which! The licorice scent is more noticeable on the young opening flower. The Newflora page described the fragrance as such and I think they gor it spot on. I also find their notes concerning what time of day to appreciate the strongest fragrance excellent, as well. Sometimes I get nothing from Dark Desire, while other times it's amazing.

Vaporvac- I did get a slight hint of licorice yesterday in the morning on a younger flower, just like you said. So far, not a wafter. I still like it anyway and it smells good :) Color hasn't faded in our current heat wave of mid 80's and the hubby likes the form /color/scent too. He even said today it's his favorite kind lol. So that's plus!

Another note- the blooms seem to fully open in a week with pistils showing slightly. For me it's a medium cool pink w a bit of dustiness. The scent seems strongest in the cool morning.

Normally I wouldn't care what my other half likes for roses, but he's interested and trying to learn. Having things he likes makes it more fun for both of us. Luckily we like the same things!

Smaller blooms in prolonged 100+ heat and color change to pale pink and white, but the fragrance is still heavenly and honestly anything that blooms at all in the prolonged heat of summer here is a total winner!

Beautiful, Cori Ann. Mine are still blooming.... they seem more continuous now than in flushes. Same thing with First Crush and the blooms seem to be improving. I'm always so impressed with your foliage. I'm going to have my soil tested to see what it needs. Perhaps that might help with my BS.

This year, both SR and FC are two years old (planted last year from Chamblee's own-root).

SR -- it has steadily bloomed since the end of May. In the cooler damper weather of June it almost balled -- not that it totally balled, but it never opened up as much as Cori Ann's in CA. It has never been fragrant. Maybe it likes dry heat? Even during our spell of 90 degree weather I couldn't detect any fragrance, certainly nothing like the instant rose perfume of a Double Delight or Firefighter for example. However, the plant is super healthy, and it has bloomed steadily. It is a definite pink presence in the garden. It also came through the winter, unprotected, with 2' of surviving cane. It is now about 30" ( I pruned it down to 8" in the spring). The energy it spent last year growing tall now seems to be spent blooming -- that's OK with me! Maybe next year there will be fragrance...

FC -- just started blooming for the first time. Lovely pale pink. Low healthy grower -- about 2'. No fragrance that I can detect. Again, maybe like SR next year there will be color AND fragrance. I really like its subtle pale pink coloring against its healthy foliage though. FC was a little more beaten back by winter (unprotected), and started growing again at a slower pace that SR too. That's OK.

You know, I have been wondering about fragrance. Maybe the folks that give the fragrance write-ups for the rose companies are "super-smellers" -- there are people who have exceptionally well-developed senses -- there are artists who are super-color sensitive, cooks who are super-tasters, and perfumers who are super-smellers. These folks can detect nuances and subtleties that most of us are only dimly aware of. Me, I need the flower to be super strongly scented :)

Sunny

First Crush has been an utter disappointment for me - planted 2 small own-root plants last spring and they are now only slightly bigger than they were 15 months ago. One has put out a couple misshapen blooms and the other has been knocking on death's door all summer. The Madame Anisette's and Earth Angels planted at the same time have needed to be cut back severely several times already to keep them reasonably-sized since they are so vigorous and both have bloomed repeatedly and profusely in their second season.

Oh ebharbey that must be so disappointing! Mine were older when I got them, seemed to be maybe 2 or 3 already?Madame Anisette, First Crush and Summer Romance seem to like the dry heat in my yard. First Crush is a lower grower, but seems to be vigorous and healthy. Thrips like it and the extreme heat affects the blooms, but I can't hold that against it since it's just consistently above 100 here and I placed it next to a hot stone wall. Maybe give First Crush another year? The fragrance is like a mixture of a can of fruit cocktail and champagne... or maybe like a Bellini. It's really delightful. Here's one of mine, currently affected by the heat and thrips, but still looking healthy.

Summer romance is my fastest repeater! About 4-5 weeks. The blooms are much smaller though like Cori Ann said (low 80s here) . The fragrance is still heavenly and it's been very healthy. It got a slight touch of mildew last week which I sprayed the few affected leaves and it's fine now. It does fade some but not much, the color stays pretty well. I'm really liking this rose!

Sarah- how old is your Summer Romance? Mine is own root bought last year and isn't doing much yet. Is she slow to mature like Madame Anisette?

Sharon

Hi Enchanted- I'm suspecting mine is a 2 year own root. I got it in 1.5 gallon pot already with buds from Home Depot late spring. If yours was a band or 1 year I'm guessing it'll need another year to really wow you. I put mine straight into it's current large pot. Have you had any blooms this year?

My half dead from the Lowes clearance rack First Crush finally bloomed. Wow! She really smells pretty!

rosemi fragrance is such a complicated thing. First people have a wide range of natural ability to smell fragrance. Then allergies and other factors can affect our sense of smell so we can lose our sense of smell for a few days or a few weeks. Then for some of us we have a good sense of smell but have "blind" spots where there a certain scents we just don't smell - I know I have a few.

I have spent a lot of time training to describe scents. You are right there are a lot of trained people who write about scent. When they describe some scents it is really difficult to understand if you have never smelled the particular scent they use to describe another scent. I think if some of the scents described like tuberose, mirabelle even orange blossoms which many people have not had access to. I have purchased some plants just just to know how that flower smells. When I first started people would ask me if a rose was scented and I could say yes. Then they would ask me what it smelled like and I would not have an answer. It look a few years of work to get to where I could identity the various components of a rose fragrance. It is not different then the training that wine experts go through.

The other issue is that the rose is fragrant, but it is difficult to detect. I will tell you all of the Parfuma are exceptionally fragrant. One thing that helps is to smell the rose when the air humidity is the highest - early morning and again early evening. Very low humidity makes it difficult to smell anything. The reason is that the humidity helps carry the scent molecules to the olfactory nerve and in low humidity fewer molecules will make it to your senses. I live in a climate where in summer the humidity during the day is about 20% so mid-day is not a great time to smell anything. Half to 3/4 open flowers seem to concentrate the scent better than a fully open flower

One way to check your sense of smell is to smell some coffee beans in a jar. if it is not strong and almost biting then it may be your sense of smell that is not sharp that day.

As for the Pafuma my favorite scent is Summer Romance. It is strong and it has so many dimensions. For my nose (and I think this is where I have a blind spot) Dark Desire can be hard to detect sometimes, but I know other people smell it when I do not. I love M. Anisette, but not everyone will love the anise (myrrh )scent. There is a new Parfuma out in Europe Marie-Jose that is a wonderful scent it smells like rhubarb and is also quite herbal and I love it. I hope it is introduced here.

Wow Chris what great info about fragrance and scent! Thank you so much. Now I understand why I can't detect fragrance midday in the summer here as well as I can during other times. Wonderful information! Thank you!

Great info Chris! I notice that sometimes when its been dry and I water a rose, a few minutes later I get a little waft of scent. Likes its saying, "Thank you" lol. You are right about the humidity. It gets mega humid here and I can smell a lot of roses other people in drier climates say they can't, especially the old tea roses. They are also more fragrant here in my garden during the rainier humid part of the year (summer) than the drier seasons.

You are so right. Roses that are too dry or otherwise stressed do not seem to have the same fragrance.

lilyfinch.. any updates on your summer romance?:)

R - mine is no where near as gorgeous as farmer ducks !! Wow!!! Mine is large and in charge with lots of buds and blooms but most had damage and now are smaller than they started out . I need to prune it all back .

This is the only photo I took of it :

Nothing has looked as nice since ?

LOL @ Large and in charge!

Do y’all fertilize a bunch? Those of you who struggle with blooms on summer Romance? Here is my Summer Romance, it’s first year in the ground! I’m in love! It got over 6 ft tall. This is the fall flush of blooms.

Maybe it thrives better in southern heat?

I think it needs a bit of time, a hard prune in the spring and feeding. It was Non-Stop blooming this summer... really incredible, but near the end of the season it started getting huge!

How do you guys prune First Crush? Does it need a hard prune in the early spring?

I have not really pruned my my First Crush as it is not nearly as robust as SR. However, I have moved it aroun a bit so I'll see how she does this spring. She was shooting up many basals late in the season.

Totoro, If a rose is young, I basically clean it up . Removi g crossed or puny canes

I then trim it down by a third.

Now, some of the Kordes I trimmed them waaayy down because first year they were still huge beasts, but Earth Angel will get a gentle hand because it is much more petite.

Reviving this thread. I saw that one of my local nurseries has Summer Fashion on sale. Is she worth it? Or is she another Madame Annisette sending long canes and not much bloom? Thanks!

I am curious too -- how many of us have kept these Kordes Parfuma roses? I got ride of Dark Desire -- no scent to my nose; First Crush I am ignoring -- healthy but rarely blooms; Mme. Anisette -- one of my favorites for scent, repeat, and health; Summer Romance -- it is getting better every year, but faint fragrance.

I still have Earth Angel and Summer Romance. They do okay here and their flowers are stunning when they do flower. Summer Romance has a fairly strong scent here. Kordes Parfuma rose is hardiest for me and does well. This one flowers a lot and has a strong scent but it gets really large. I have Madame Anisette but will be removing her this spring. She has been a total dud here. One cane, maybe one rose a year. The Kordes that do best for me are Innocencia, and Garden Delight. Neither has any scent but Innocencia is a nice edge of the border rose, staying small and flowering almost non stop and is disease and pest free. It's not very showy but covers itself in little blooms. I have much better luck with the hardy DA roses which are more suited to my shady garden.

I still have all of mine and they have changed quite a bit with age. Summer romance is humongous. I needs chopping down after it's 1st flush which is amazing. It is extremely frequent in my garden, sweet almost like a candy. 1st crush has taken a long time to come into it's own but it was 2 $50 from Lowes so I don't think it had a very good starting life. But this year it is starting to really put on growth so I expect good things from it. Read bloom has been not so great on that but I struggled with midge. Same thing with summer romance. Dark desire is fragrant at certain times of the day and grows tall and narrow. It is not healthy for me here. I have moved 1 of them to another space and it seems to be doing slightly better but I'm probably going to be giving it to a friend that has fantastic sunlight and see how it does there. Then I'll know if it's me or the Rose Or Just my Garden. Fire opal is the big winner. I forgot about that rose cause it's no problem at all.

I love Summer Romance. It does get huge so Im letting it climb into the nearby dwarf mulberry tree. It is fragrant, healthy and has large lilac pink quartered blooms.

I have 3 First Crush. I got them and the Summer Romance on clearance at Lowes for $5 ea. in 3 gallons. The first crush bloom alot too. If its really hot the color is very faded if we are having cooler nights, the color is baby pink with hot pink buds. They are tall bushes. I consider SR a climber here.

That is really what I want to do with mine sultry. I need to find a place to plant both of them but it is hard to find a replacement in that color with similar characteristics that is short. The place it is I only wanted 3 of 4' rose because it backs on to ballast trades and behind it is all new dawn. I have my 1st crush planted next to summer romance but I figured I could let that 1 grow along the ballast rates and that is what she has done. 1st crush as a lovely fragrance also I forgot to mention. I think we must have bought ours at a similar time. Although my summer romance came from Chamblee.

Does Summer Romance have a lot of thorns? I’m looking for roses with as few thorns as possible due to our dogs.

That would not be summer romance! ! Thorny!

THE KEPT:

Soul Sister is an all around excellent large flowered apricot floribunda, easy care and nice habit. Bloom is heavy, repeat is good.

Beverly is quite good, disease resistant, excellent fragrance. Does seem to shut down a bit in midsummer.

Savannah: Ditto what I said about Beverly, but a more salmon color and petal packed bloom. I believe I get 3 flushes of bloom from Savannah and Beverly. An ideal rose like Fragrant Cloud or PJPII, would produce 6 flushes. The two Kordes pink roses are MIA in midsummer and miss a few flushes.

Mme A really only blooms in the spring so far (I’ve had her 4 years), but is an extremely strong trouble free rose.

Savannah:

THE SHOVELED:

Summer Romance: The blooms were quite nice and fragrant, again a lack of repeat. I can only put up with one non-repeating monster Kordes, Mme A being more unique, won out so SR got the axe. She was big and burly, it took a big axe to get rid of her.

Tupelo Honey: Never really got going in my garden, I gave up after two seasons. When it gave a stingy couple of blooms, they were ugly.

Kosmos: I liked the white tinged pink bloom and compact habit. But she didn’t like my garden and grew backward and croaked.

End I'm enamored to see you link it to flushes from Savannah. Mine is blooming still in its pot from ARE And I'm enamored. I really like the rosy fruity fragrance also.

I am trialling roses as a nature strip border in tropical far north queensland. I bought Summer Romance as bare rooted plant 6 months ago, it has flowered tons and has extremely healthy vigorous growth but I cant get any fragrance off it

Is it grafted? Kordes usually are own root, but grafted can effect the scent or lack of it. Strawchicago has put red lava rock and sand to help the scent, but I am not sure with grafted.

How does SR do in dappled shade for part of the day? We are in GA where the sun can just roast a rose if in full sun all day.

@Liz Bell summer romance prefers full sun here in the south and they do not burn in all day sun. As long as they get 6 or more hours of sun it does well

Mine got afternoon dappled shade after 1 pm from a nearby tree until the sun shifted enough in late afternoon to provide more direct sun. So if your areas can provide at least 6 hours it should be great. Kordes here seem to prefer all day sun compared to Austin’s. Our zones are probably not very different since I am in alabama

I just saw it, Ben - Kosmos croaked by you. !! I can’t imagine that happening here, unless it was rabbits.

Sounds like SR is leggy for alot of folks - could it be pegged like a short climber to a 4 foot fence?

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@Liz Bell summer romace could be pegged but her branches are not very flexible. It would have to be done very slowly

Thank you!

Vapor, we know whatever you were saying is good but can't make it out.

That is hilarious! I'm not sure if it's my kindle or Houzzs! I think what I meant to say was that for me summer romance Is extremely vigorous And not at all leggy. She fills in beautifully. I would not consider her as a climber and I don't think her limbs would bend very well. She will get very tall however even when cut down in spring. Tall as in maybe 5 to 6 ' not 7'.