With the heat and dry weather, we experienced during last summer, roses performed particularly well. As a consequence, you may be inspired to add further roses bushes or climbers to your garden but which type of rose do you choose to give you a wonderful fragrance?
Essentially the Old Roses and English Roses bred by leading roses growers in the UK offer the best fragrance, as they retain purer rose scent. Hybridised Modern roses, whilst more hardy and disease resistant, frequently have lost the fragrance once associated with these flowers. It is worth noting that rose scent usually peaks for around two to three weeks in June and is weather dependent. The age of the blooms will also affect the intensity of perfume they exude.
Essentially there are five groups of roses to select from, depending on what type of fragrance you are looking for:
Old Roses
This group is divided into two categories: Repeat Flowering Old Roses or Summer Flowering Old Roses which mostly flower during early summer, giving a magnificent display. It is the Summer Flowering Old Roses for which rose breeder David Austin became famous when he bred his range of English Roses.
The typical fragrance of Old Roses is what we normally think of as rose scent. Many Old Roses originate from Damask roses which are highly fragrant hybrids from the wild R gallica, R moschata and R fedtschenkoana, brought to Europe in the 12th century by the Crusaders returning from Damascus. They are valued for their highly fragrant essential oils, frequently used in making perfume.
The repeat flowering Old Roses have been bred from China Roses, first introduced into Europe from China and Japan in the 18th century. When they were cross-fertilised with the true Old Roses and new group of Repeat Flowering Old Roses resulted, including Chinas, Portlands, Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals. Their blooms have hints of lemon, almond, honey, watercress and hyacinth with stamens having scents of clove and cinnamon. An good example of the China Rose available today is Old Blush China which is a shrub rose with soft pink blooms.
Rugosa roses fall within this category providing colourful blooms all summer which turn into rose hips in autumn. Most of the roses breeders offer various varieties of Repeat Flowering Old Roses – and Helensbank Garden in Fife holds the national collection of Portland Roses.
Tea Roses:
Originating in China, in their purest form, Tea Roses have the fragrance associated with fresh Pekoe Tea. Introduced to Europe in the early 19th century, many of the early varieties had yellow and orange flower colours. As they were crossed with Hybrid Perpetuals in the mid-1800s, what we know today as Hybrid Tea Roses, with their well-formed blooms, long stems and continuous blooming in a wide range of colours, are frequently grown. Whilst there are many Hybrid Teas to choose from award-winning varieties include the Simply the Best Rose of the Year in 2002, with burnt orange blooms and a strong fragrance. Frequently seen in gardens is Peace, originally bred in France with cuttings sent by breeder Meilland to growers around the world when the pending threat of Nazi occupation made him aware the rose might not survive. The rose was then released in 1945 when the end of the war was in sight.
Musk Roses:
Originally the scent of musk derived from the scent glands of small deer native to the Himalayas and was widely used in perfumes. However, Musk Roses come from Rosa moschata, native to Europe and Asia with a distinctive scent from its stamens. Hybrid Musks were developed by rose grower Reverend Joseph Pemberton. As referenced above, the scent from many Musk Roses comes from their stamens rather than petals, whilst others have a musk fragrance which emits when the stamens mingle with the petal fragrance. An example is the vigorous climber Paul’s Himalayan Musk.
Myrrh Roses:
These roses do not in fact have links with the biblical myrrh brought to the baby Jesus by the three wise men. Rather the scent refers to the anise or liquorice-like smell reminiscent of the herb Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata). It is largely thanks to David Austin that many roses can be grown with this delicious fragrance, and varieties include both shrub and climbing roses in a range of colours. Notable early examples available from David Austin Roses include Heritage and Scepter'd Isle.
Fruity Roses:
Roses derived by crossing old European roses with ancient Chinese roses provide fruity notes of lemon, grapefruit, apple, pear, raspberry and strawberry. Bourbon roses are well-known for their strong fragrance, and several varieties feature these distinct fruity notes. These roses originate from a natural hybridisation between the Autumn Damask, Tous les Mois, and the Parson's Pink China rose, resulting in large fragrant blooms which were popular in Victorian gardens. They originated from the Ile de Bourbon (La Reunion) just east of Madagascar with the first hybrid identified by the French botanist A M Perichon around 1818. Seeds from this hybrid were sent to Paris for the gardens of the Duke of Orleans at Neuilly near Paris, where they were raised and then crossed with Gallica and Damask type roses producing the range of Bourbon roses that we know today. Other roses which have a fruity fragrance with a strong apple scent are the Wichuraiana rambling roses, known for their vigorous growth and delicate cascades of blooms ideal for arches, pergolas and walls.
