Let me preface this by admitting that I'm not a fragrance person - as a hayfever sufferer, breathing roses in deeply is not something I tend to do. However, there are two roses in my garden that I cannot resist: the alba Madame Plantier - I've never sniffed anything so much, it is intoxicating and I can't get enough. The other is Meilland hybrid tea Eternal Flame, very strong citrus, surprising and quite incredible.

I’m surprised that you dont have the famous Mr. Lincoln on your list, or Chrysler Imperial or Firefighter. No, you don’t need all 3. I like the fragrance of Chrysler Imperial the best. Mr. Lincoln has an dusty undertone and Firefighter has more high notes and less low notes to my nose making it rather fruity in comparison. Also essential to my sniffer is Alnwick Castle, which is more raspberry in my garden than Sonia Rykiel. AC is like raspberry sorbet. so delicious and wafting. The lowly Iceberg has a lovely honeyed fragrance which is fairly unique. Lady Hillingdon has a mouthwatering canteloupe fragrance. And I’ve been told by several visitors to my garden that Bidop’s Castle is their favorite for clear rose fragrance like they imagine roses should smell like but better. But you have more than enough roses to keep your sniffer entertained. You don't need any if them.

Yes, essential oils vary greatly. I have 4-5 lavender, and 4 or so vetiver from different sources and they are surprisingly different. Ie the high altitude lavender has a lighter, clearer fragrance. Floracopaeia is a nice source, but basic stuff like Auracacia is fine for training purposes.

Princess Charlene deMonaco is one of the best smelling roses I have smelled..right up there with Evelyn, Mrs B R Cant ,and Jude.

PCdM is grapefruit & some sort of perfume. Really pretty. It can look very similar to Abe or Evelyn but I think it smells better than both Abe and Evelyn.

What does PCdM smell like to you guys??

I second Rouge Royale, and Young Lycias needs inclusion for sure, as well as Frederic Mistral which was always more fragrant than my Memorial Day. Diane

Yeah, Chrysler Imperial and Firefighter. They both are very fragrant with sweet rose.

Sultry, thanks for description of Pcdm. I bought one from Lowes and eagerly wait to sniff it🌹

My pink jasmine (Jasminum polyanthum) is blooming today. I say it smells very thick perfumy and cloying similar to Night Blooming Jasmine (cestrum nocturnum). Hubby swears it smells just like *Cat Pee*!🐱 I'm like, "How can you possibly think that?" but he insists it smells exactly like it lol.

I guess you never know what something is gonna smell like to somone else.

forever_a_newbie: I think you will love PCdM! She gets very tall here so put her at the back of the bed.

Sultry: is that so? I am afraid Pcdm will block the southern sun to poor Queen of Sweden. Let me move it (just planted it yesterday). Thank younso much!

sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish) I enjoy PcDM the most in my garden, along with Nahema. PcDm smells like pear nectar to me.

Sultry, my Pink Jasmine and Rose du Mai dianthus have been blooming for about a month on either side of the driveway. Each is spectacular in its own right, but together, the combo is beyond divine. And fortunately, the fragrance drifts into the house when we have the front door open. I've heard some folks say that some Jasmines smell like cat pee, but my Pink Jasmine doesn't at all. But it could also be an individual thing, like how some folks only taste soap when they eat cilantro :-D

If you like the smell of lemons, I think Pope John Paul II is a good contender

Heritage is also good for lemon scent.

Sunny Mississippi 8a For essential oils, I like NOW brand the most. It's local here and I got to sniff many varieties at Fruitful Yield health food store. Here's the ranking of scents in essential oils:

1) Peppermint, so fresh like Stash' peppermint tea. Victoria Beckham fits into toddler size clothing by sniffing peppermint (I was only kidding about the skinny size, but the rest is true).

2) Lavender oil: A few drops on a tissue and sniff that for 5 min. is enough to calm me. When my daughter was a baby, she didn't know how to blow her nose and had a congested nose, so I held a tissue with lavender drops nearby her nose, and she could breathe easier & sleep better.

3) Camphor oil: it's pleasant and is #1 to decongest nose, similar to Vick's vapor rub.

4) Frankincense: this is expensive but it reminds me of Austin rose Mary Magdalene's fabulous myrrh scent.

5) Jasmine essential oil, I prefer this over the Rose essential oil (I'm spoiled with real roses).

6) Pine essential oil: this smells like a fresh Christmas tree, and it's a treat during Christmas season.

7) Eucalyptus oil - I enjoyed it, but won't buy again, dried stems of eucalyptus smells better.

BEWARE of cheap essential oils made in China. Years ago Walmart had to pull out their essential oils (from China) since they were contaminated with bacteria and caused infections. I sniffed one when I was at Walmart and they were stinky.

Below is a link of medicinal use of essential oils: 10 Essential Oils for Respiratory Infections｜ iHerb Blog

Sultry - oh, wow....now I'm really excited about when my PCdM blooms, and I haven't even got it yet. :) :) Cat pee...lol. I also had a rose that smelled like cat pee...I can't remember the name...it was a very cupped semi-double rose.

Straw - pear nectar!! I can't wait!!

No 'Dee-Lish'? We call it something else here, but I did find the fragrance heavenly.

Some other lesser known favourites in this department.

'Mrs John Laing'.. ''Surpassing Beauty''.. ''Secret Garden Musk Climber''.. 'Gruss an Teplitz'.. 'General Kleber'.. 'Eugene Furst'.. 'Mme Lauriol de Barny'.. 'Bathsheba'.. 'Bring Me Sunshine'.. 'Duchesse de Brabant'..

..to name a few that I've had in recent years that I don't think I've seen mentioned so far.

Oh yes! Dee-lish! aka Line Renaud, Forget-me-not and Tchekov. I agree that it’s heavenly. Like grapefruit to my nose. Also Scentuous, one of my top 3 favorites for sniffing. Then there’s Tiffany, Double Delight, Tropicana…

there’s a thread from a few years ago that listed the top 100 most fragrant roses by people’s votes. I bet Straw remembers it. It wouldn’t have the most recent roses, but still fun to peruse.

Hi Brittany,

I did not see Sugar Moon on your list and when I do a mixed bouquet that variety always gets singled out for its powerful scent, more like an expensive perfume than a rose. All my rose growing friends immediately went out an bought a plant of their own after smelling the flower. It grows like a beast on Fortuniana.

Noseometer: Per your request I dug up stuff that I deposited in my HMF's JOURNAL.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1703547/your-best-roses-that-are-intensely-fragrant-please jpw_chi(5b Chicago, IL)
Most fragrant roses by # of votes from Gardenweb, compiled by Jim in Chiago on Nov. 2007

23x Double Delight (creamy white swirled with strawberry red)
23x Mr. Lincoln (dark red)
15x Fragrant Cloud (coral red)
13x Chrysler Imperial (burgundy red)
13x Gertrude Jekyll (rose pink)
13x Jude the Obscure (honey)
10x Crimson Glory
10x Lemon Spice (patel yellow tinted pale pink)
9x Abraham Darby (Austin, apricot blend)
9x Francis Dubruiel (dark true red)
9x Papa Meilland (dark red)
8x Evelyn (Austin, apricot pink blend)
8x Heirloom (dark mauve blend)
8x Rose de Rescht (vivid fuchsia)
8x Secret (white tipped pink)
8x Sharifa Asma (Austin, pearly pink)
8x Sunsprite (bright yellow)
8x Sweet Chariot (purple blend)
8x Tiffany (pink/yellow blend)
7x Angel Face (1968, dusky mauve)
7x Melody Parfumee (deep plum fading to clear lavender)
7x The McCartney Rose (ruffled, few petals)
7x Yves Piaget (Romantica, hot pink)
6x Granada (yellow, orange, scarlet tricolor)
6x Just Joey (clear apricot) 6x Mirandy
6x Sentimental (white striped with red)
6x Secret Garden Musk Climber
6x Zepherine Drouhin (cerise pink)

Above was compiled by Jim in Chicago on November, 2007 of Gardenweb (now Houzz)

Thanks Straw! I knew you would have it!

Ben - your Sugar Moon is exquisite...like all of your roses!!

Straw - I see that Lemon Spice is on the list..I've always thought that might be a good rose to get. I never found one though. :)

Elf Rosa touched on something that's important: everybody is talking about roses but noses are even more important.

Allergies, pollutants, and even temperature can make major difference. I didn't think I could smell tea roses. Heck, I couldn't full stop. Then I had the encounter with several wasps or yellow jackets (couldn't tell which, just felt them, and several stings per.) So I combined baking soda poltices with several benadryl. Later that afternoon I wandered through a non-biting part of the garden and low and behold, the tea bed smelled wonderful. For me, it was the first and only time.

Temperature in hot and humid places like the ARS garden in Shreveport makes major differences in rose scent. Many of their beds have lots of plants of one cultivar. What we learned there was 1) visit early morning- elsewise move from patch of shade to patch of shade and 2) roses that smelled lovely at 9am were nothing two hours later.

Another contender I don't see mentioned here is Orchid Romance. It's not talked about much but when I stopped at a botanical garden over the summer there were three of these there and they perfumed half of the entire garden, wafts really well in the air

Thanks, @stillanntn6b, that is definitely my experience too. Looking at the OP's list there are several roses that don't really strike me as all that fragrant in my garden. Bolero is strongly scented for sure. But Earth Angel, Rose de Rescht, Ms. B. R. Cant, Sally Holmes, Marie Pavie, Plum Perfect, Kiss Me Kate are just a few examples from my garden that have a scent that I either don't notice or don't smell at all.

Ann - that's remarkable that Benadryl and/or baking soda made such a difference. :)

@Elestrial 7a my sister has an Orchid Romance in her garden this year. I can't wait to see it and smell it. She's trying to determine placement before she plants it. I'm happy I can use her roses for a sniff study too! I do have a PJPII and I love it's lemon fragrance. It is a blackspot mess, but has somehow survived the past four? years. What a perfect white bloom!

@ElfRosaPNW8b Kiss Me Kate is deeply fragrant for me. An addictive, strong floral. I'll work on a better description when she blooms this spring. I don't get a fragrance from Plum Perfect. Marie Pavie is a soft, powdery fragrance. Sally Holmes smells like cinnamon to me. And Mrs. B. R. Cant smells like a fruity bourbon. Rose de Rescht and Earth Angel will bloom soon so Ill have to take detailed notes. Earth Angel was fantastic last year in her third year.

@stillanntn6b I'm so happy you mentioned that about the gardens in Louisiana. I was planning to go visit at the end of the month to smell all the roses. Now I will plan to get there first thing in the morning. Their Saturday and Sunday hours are unfortunate for those of us seeking a fragrance binge.

@BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14) I'll add Sugar Moon to the wishlist!

@Marlorena I tried DeeLish a few years ago and she was a blackspot mess for me. She did not thrive and was not a fan of no-spray for me. I could add her to the "Try Again One Day" list. I do have a Bring Me Sunshine in the ground that came as a bareroot this spring. Can't wait to see it bloom!

@noseometer I grabbed a large bush of Heritage when I was a K&M a few weeks ago. It had been left to the elements and was COMPLETELY CLEAN! I'm so excited to have another fragrant, healthy rose. I had Firefighter once upon a time. I adored it's fragrance but it hated my no-spray garden. I guess I'll add it to the "Try Again One Day" list too. To me Rouge Royal smells like Firefighter. I had a Rouge Royal in my had the other day and have no idea how I didn't get home with it!

@susan9santabarbara I'll have to try that jasmine and dianthus!

I've had some fragrant lovelies over the years that I've passed along for one reason or another. Mainly, they can't stand my no-spray garden. Others, the bloom didn't wow me or the fragrance was too astringent. Here are a few that have come and gone. I may try some of them again one day. There are so many fragrant roses to try. I know I will end up with a healthy garden of fragrant roses if I am persistent.

Come & Gone:

Clovie

Just Joey

Sedona

Pat's Choice

Pink Flamingo

Touch of Class

Sunshine Daydream

Queen Elizabeth

Mother of Pearl

Sweet Mademoiselle

Nicole Carole Miller

DeeLIsh

Comte de Chambord

Belinda's Blush

Sweet Spirit

Quietness

Mme Ernest Calvat

Louis Philippe

Firefighter

Mystic Beauty

Emma Haftl

Ballerina

Savannah

Ebb Tide

Twilight Zone

Celestial Night

New Zealand

Sweet Madame Blue

Emily Bronte

Glorie de Guilan

I feel like I am seriously lacking roses with a damask fragrance. So many are fruity, which is fabulous. I've also added many myrrh varieties this season. Are there any healthy, damask-scented roses that would survive for me? Thank you!

I did try Lemon Spice, but it was so similar to my PJPII that it didn't wow me. I prefer PJPII so I passed Lemon Spice on to my nearby rose friend. I can always visit her garden to smell it. Plus she sprays, so I think it will be happier in her garden.

I will add PCdM to the list. I was thinking it might fade severely in my intense sun and smell like fruit/pears which many of my Meilland and NIRP roses do, so I'm on the hunt for fragrance variety.

Sunny: Radio times has an edge over Orchid Romance with Damask scent. From your above list: just a slight fruity scent on Just Joey in my clay garden.

Zero scent on Queen Elizabeth. Zero scent on Mother of Pearl.

Sweet Mademoiselle is very strong myrrh & old rose.

Dee-lish is yummy strawberry-guava in my clay.

Comte de Chambord is A MUST, best scent among my 160 fragrant varieties (collected since 1997). It's like the most expensive perfume on earth.

Mme Ernest Calvat is similar scent to M. Isaac Pereire (old rose, but NOT as good as Comte de Chambord). Comte has good repeat 3 times per year.

Firefighter: Fruity and damask together, but NOT as heavenly as Comte or Radio Times.

Savannah - nice, but not as good as Comte nor Radio Times (pure heaven).

Twilight Zone - old rose in very cold weather, nothing to rave about.

New Zealand - honeysuckle scent, not crazy about it.

Wow! I think I need to try Sugar Moon!

Sunny Mississippi - I'm surprised your PJP has black spot, mine is completely free of any disease, one of the healthiest in my garden

Orchid Romance grows tall and narrow, if that helps with placement. Such a great fragrance!

What about Madame Anisette? Mine is blooming today. She smelled like anise and warm vanilla..like some sort of yummy cookie♡

My neighbors all compliment Lagerfeld, Secret and Lemon Spice for their scents. They all have good fragrance but also bloom so profusely there’s no mistaking they’re in bloom.

Lady Emma Hamilton and Margaret Merrill get my votes for their quality of fragrance. They don’t waft as much but i tend to agree that both have the best fragrance overall and both bloom really well. Jude is the better known Austin for fragrance but he doesn’t bloom as much per flush and the roses tend to be kinda blah one note for color. Lady Emma is much more interesting and has a better fragrance IMHO.

I also agree with Susan about jasmine, and add gardenias if you like a good challenge. When our gardenia and jasmine are in bloom it doesn’t matter what roses there are, you’ll never smell them over the jasmine and gardenias.

Lady Emma from last season…waiting for her massive spring flush right now.

Sultry this will be my first season with Madame Anisette. She has not bloomed for me yet, but she has buds! I can't wait to see how she performs. Did yours have a strong fragrance her first year?

Ryan this is my first season with Lady Emma Hamilton. She is putting on her first flush now. To me the fragrance is similar to Gruss an Coburg and English Garden. We have a large gardenia bush near our back door. I didn't prune it last year, so this seasons first flush should be amazing! The fragrance is locked in my memory from my childhood. I love that it wafts. I had a potted one near my front door but had to move it because the fragrance was too strong if you can believe that! Just where I couldn't breath. It was too much. So I moved it halfway across the yard haha.

Straw thank you for all of your fragrance notes! I'll have to try Comte de Chambord again. It was gorgeous and fragrant, but ended up suffering from Blackspot and a gigantic root gall. It was awful. The fragrance was memorable. I haven't smelled anything else like it since. I would love to try it again. It smelled exactly like a powder my grandmother used long ago.

Thank you Elestrial. I will tell her to put Orchid Romance toward the back.

Sunny - just curious, why did you pass on the beauteous Nicole Carol Miller?

Sultry - oh my goodness!! Your Madame Anisette is divine!!! I could stare at it for hours!! :)

Ryan - those outer petals on your LEH are stunning!! Gorgeous rose!

@rosecanadian I was sad to remove Nicole Carol Miller! Her coloration and form were gorgeous and her fragrance was stunning. It was a very crisp, citrus if memory serves. I passed her along to a member of my local rose society who sprays. Because I don’t spray, NCM suffered Naked Lady Syndrome from chronic blackspot. Oh but if I had a spray garden, she would be a star. I would also have Sedona again. That rose was so perfect and beautiful. It smelled just like Fruit Loops to me.

NCM sounds great! I think I’d love a crisp citrus. We dont need to spray in my climate.

Benjamin Britton smells like Fruit Loops to me also.

In regards to sniffing and sniffers…in my hot dry climate, roses smell the best just as the sun touches them in the morning. Then the heat quickly burns off the fragrance. In the afternoon, most roses have little if any fragrance. no one wants to come early to sniff my roses and dinner guests are mostly disappointed. I had one disappointed dinner guest who came back one morning and was amazed by all the fragrances.

The fragrance also changes during the day as the more volatile oils evaporate first and the ones that are left smell different. In regards to sniffers, some people can’t smell some roses at all, roses that others say smell strongly. Tea is very commonly a scent that people vary greatly in their ability to smell. I can barely smell Mrs. BR Cant, but I‘m not sure if it is me or my dry climate evaporating the fragrance oils since no one else seemed to be able to smell it either. I wish I couldn’t smell Glamis Castle which smells like mothballs to me. Others say ”dirty diaper pail” and others say it smells great. It actually smelled pretty good when I sniffed one in humid Oregon. Wollerton Old Hall smells like mothballs to me also (horrible!) but there are a lot of reviews where people love it, more than with Glamis Castle. Rosa foetida doesnt smell particularly bad to me. Allergies decrease the sense of smell for many people, it actually sensitizes my nose until some point when I can’t breathe through my nose. If you have trouble smelling because of allergies, try using a Neti pot.

Sunny Mississippi I have been training my rose nose for some years, not only to detect different fragrance notes but to develop my sense of smell, which I would have described as ’poor’ in the past. The more you sniff the better your sense of smell gets and the more you can distinguish between different rose notes.

I found these generic perfume charts helpful to break down fragrance into recognisable notes I could apply to roses:

Some rose breeders, Like Delbard, include fragrance pyramids of base, middle and top notes, so it’s instructive to try and isolate the notes they say are present in a specific rose of theirs you have, excuse the French!

I love citrussy fragrances and my No.1 in that range is the intense, grapefruit aroma of the Delbard rose La Rose de Molinard/Parfum de Paris. Shame LRdM balls and browns in wet weather, I have nearly SP’d it so often but somehow it lives to experience another season because I am so addicted to its fragrance. Another classic citrussy Delbard is Souvenier de Marcel Proust, pure citronella, gorgeous blooms but a rather stingy rebloomer in my climate.

Others with a strong citrus notes to my nose are Austins such as Lady Emma Hamilton and Golden Celebration, plus new to me this year, The Poet's Wife, which has a zesty lemon scent:

Sultry- I grew Madam Anisette from a 2 yr own root a couple years ago when I lived in PNW. She’s one of my absolute favorites. Her scent is heavenly. She bloomed really well for me. I can say I haven’t had any other roses that had her scent profile.

I moved to NC z8a last year. I’m glad to see she does well for you here in the south! I’m having to learn what roses do well in the hot humid south. It’s completely different from what I’m used to. Thanks for posting your photo!

On the topics of fragrance, I was looking up the rose "Boule de Neige" this morning and in the scent description it says "Milk fragrance." It makes me want to buy it just to see what exactly they mean by that

Sunny - yes, crisp citrus...that's exactly what NCM smells like. Good description. Yeah, we don't usually get rose diseases here. So I'm never sure of which roses to advise for good garden health. Another rose that smells like Fruit Loops (to me) is Pink Peace. :)

Noseometer - a rose that I had to get rid of because of the smell was Distant Drums. I could smell it from every corner of the yard...and it was a horrible myrrh smell.

Nollie - those are really instructive/helpful wheels for fragrance!! And I love your The Poet's Wife! It's a mesmerizing photo. :)

Elestrial - milk fragrance....that's pretty interesting!

Nollie, thanks for posting those fragrance charts. I also love citrus fragrances. I had to look up the Delbard roses you mentioned. They sound fascinating!

Elestrial, I have some pretty buds on Boule de Neige. I will have to post to this thread when they open. I dont remember the scent. Its been a few yrs since it bloomed and it was a baby then..it got severly cut back & transplanted when we moved a few yrs ago. Its finally happy again lol.

HU, I just got Madame Anisette as a small own root last year. Last year, she kinda sat there and maybe had one or two small blooms. This spring she has taken off (6ft in several directions) and I am getting lots of big fluffy blossoms. She is still in her pot but has grown firmiy into the ground. I tried to pick up the pot but she is strong lol. I am going to have to figure out a permanent spot for her with a strong trellis! Her leaves are very healthy here too

(I dont spray here)

Rosecanadian, Thank you for the Madame Anisette compliments. I am really loving her! I even named one of our doelings after her! Then decided I would give ALL the doe kids, this year, rose names! We had a ton of girls this year and I have been having fun naming them all after roses!

Sunny in Mississippi, lol@ Naked Lady Syndrome! That's a good name for the naughty Streakers :D Naked Lady Syndrome reminds me of the Hurricane Lilies (aka Naked Ladies/red spider lily/ Lycoris ) that would pop up all over my lawn in mid-late summer at my old house. I miss them! Gonna have to get some more!

Rosecanadian, Sultry, if you are interested in Delbard’s ’Fragrance Pyramids’ here’s the link to their website to peruse. It’s only in French, but easily translated.

This rose in the link, Folle Courtisane, lasted no more than a few months with me. All I got from the blooms was an intensely astringent hospital disinfectant smell, which at a push could be described as tarragon/aniseed. DA would probably call it Myrrh. A strongly but repellently fragrant rose!!

https://www.georgesdelbard.com/product/rosier-folle-courtisane

Nollie thanks for the charts and wheels. But I'm perplexed by Oriental fragrance, especially with the maze as an icon. Is that similar to saying rose smells like rose instead of using the word Damask?

On a note of bringing the study inside, should I try to preserve the rose petals in a glass jar? Should I float them in water? Or dry them and make a potpourri? I saw a short clip on Instagram that I have since lost of a man doing a fragrance sample with different roses in glass jars with lids. I'm not sure how long this would stay fresh until it started to decompose in the jar. How to preserve the fragrance for indoor studying?

Sultry we have Spider Lilies here that signal the start of fall. I adore them! I hope you do plant some in your garden/lawn.

Sultry - I am definitely interested in getting a Madame Anisette if I ever find one...and not this year. I think that's a GREAT idea to name your doelings after roses!! What names did you choose? Pictures?? lol :)

Sunny, I didn’t see it as a maze, more a stylised oriental sigil, kind of like what you might see on a laquered Chinese box or something. The more detailed chart breaks ‘oriental’ down in spicy floral, aromatic, resinous etc. They are just general nose-training fragrance notes from the perfume industry rather than rose specific, but a rose that smells warmly spicy, e.g. of cloves, might fall into that category. ’Diamond Eyes’ smelt like that to me, whereas I can only describe the damask scent as ‘pure, sweet rose’. Others with better noses might be able to break it down more accurately..

Rosecanadian, I hope you find a Madame Anisette. She has been worth it so far. I will have to see how often she blooms now that she is more mature. I have her by the hay barn (hopefully she and others will eventually cover it) and every morning when I go to grab some hay, I have to stop and smell every open bloom!

I have a whole slew of rose named babies now. I love spring! Only one doeling did not get a rose name. She earned her name instead..Bullhorn Betty!! She is the loudest screamer. I've never heard such a high pitched goat scream..if she has to wait for food, or loses track of her mom for 2 seconds, gets mad at another kid. Its like nails on a chalkboard lol. Nothing wrong with her she just likes to scream.

You have some wonderful roses on your list, Sunny! Abraham Darby is a great one for fragrance -- but in the south it might be a martyr to blackspot. I haven't tried it yet in Arkansas. I've found like some others on this thread that Mrs B R Cant has a mild fragrance for me (though one of my students who smelled it at the campus garden said that it smelled strong to her). Some of the other teas I grow -- notably G Nabonnand and Clementina Carbonieri -- have a good fragrance to me, and stronger than Mrs B R Cant. Blooms also vary depending on time of day and some days I can't smell them at all (not sure if that is the rose being variable or my allergies!) Annie Laurie McDowell has a lovely fragrance with notes of old rose and does well for me here in Arkansas. Madame Alfred Carriere also has a really nice fragrance for me here (though I know of another specimen that gets mostly shade that doesn't smell much at all to me). It is interesting how variable roses seem to be between individual noses and from place to place and season to season. Back when I grew a bunch of roses in pots, I felt that perhaps some of them got more fragrant on the rare occasions I planted them out rather than confining them. I'm also pretty sure that they get stronger in fragrance as mature roses. Oh, by the way, did you mention Souvenir de St Anne's? It has a sort of unusual pear-like fragrance to my nose. As you continue refining your collection to your taste, you might give it a try at some point. It isn't a super strong knock-your-socks-off fragrance, but I liked it.

Lately my love of fragrant roses has inspired me to branch out into other fragrant flowers. I've got a bunch of peonies growing, and peony Rosa Bonheur is opening its first bud for me. It smells beautifully like a combination of peony and rose.

I believe Heirloom roses currently has Madam Anisette as own root! I’m thinking of ordering it in fear it might not be available in future years. MA did have a bit longer rest in between flushes for me compared to others however, her blooms didn’t become small in the heat like Summer Romance etc. she did get a bit tall but, I also don’t prune back too hard. I truly love her and think she’s worth having if you’re into fragrance.

Sultry - Screaming Goat Baby...wouldn't that be a weird rose name. lol Yes, I'd love to find a Madame Anisette next year. :) :) Now that's the kind of rose that I love...you have to stop and smell every open bloom!!! Chandos Beauty was such a rose to me. :)

KS - that sounds like a delicious-smelling peony.

HU - let us know if you get one. :)