Charles de Mills is fragrant, but not very winter hardy; which means it needs snow cover in winter or fairly mild winters. It can handle frost though. I like this gallica a lot, I tend to go for pink, whites and reds, not so often mauve and purple, but this one is a favorite.

A rose that need some fuzz and care to grow well is Blue Parfum. However, it did well for me for years and very nice fragrance. Mine were not as pale as the pictures on helpmefind though, but colour did vary with weather and fade with age. I will buy this rose again as soon as I find it for sale some where.

If you can accept a paler lilac colour Blue Monday is a healthy vigorous grower and bloomer, and with very fragrant flowers.

Another gallica I like is Hippolyte, good fragrance and very charming flowers.

Ebb Tide is not really mauve, but more purple, but is has a lovely sweet scent. I have its offspring Twilight Zone (didn't notice the scent--just got the rose this spring), but I'll bet it's a good one, too. I like Big Purple's scent and it's thorns are moderate (to me, at least). Young Lycidas has a great scent, but is still too young for me to evaluate its vase life. The Prince is not mauve, but purplish red, and has a lovely scent. For me, Angel Face doesn't smell like lemons, but has a rose smell that's hard for me to describe. Some of my favorites in the mauve-purple family don't have much scent, such as Blueberry Hill, Blue Bayou, Wild Blue Yonder, and Ascot (dark burgundy red). You'll notice I don't have specific details about each roses' scent because I find it next to impossible to characterize scent as myrrh or lemons or licorice. To me they are sort of sweet, or citrus, or have a deeper almost incense like smell (myrrh?). I guess I just have a bad smeller. Oh--I have alkaline soil, too. Diane

Thank you, taoseeker, for info. on hardiness and scent on Charles de Mills, Blue Parfum, Blue Monday, and Hippolyte. I'll check them out. You are from Norway, I wonder what zone you are in. Here in Chicagoland the coldest is -20 Fahrenheit, or -28.8 Celsius.

Hi Diane: I'm glad to know that Ebb Tide(low-thorn) has a good scent. Thanks for info. on others that do well in alkaline soil. I saw your profile in HMF with roses planted in a grass field - they look very nice. Here my soil is so bad that I make raised beds, and order brand new dirt - my HMF name is "Chicago IL 5a". Someone in HMF suggested that HMF members should put info. in their garden's description such as climate, annual rainfall, type of soil ... diseases or pests...etc - so she would know which roses are appropriate for her. I meant to tell Lyn, HMF administrator - so I mention it here.

I'm in a completely different climate from you, so with a grain of salt. Of the ones you mention, I have Young Lycidas. New this year, and superb so far. Gorgeous blooms, very lovely fragrance. I also love Heirloom which you already have. Blue Girl will be similar in fragrance to Angel Face - lemony. Barbara Streisand is new for me this year - not impressed year 1. Have always been interested in Big Purple, but have yet to see it.

I'm in the south west, by the sea so, not very cold winters here. The winter three years ago we had a few nights in a row pretty close to -20 C (I think -4 F), and it was breaking 100 year old records. Some winters can be cold, and early frost can be just as hard on some roses. I think the coldest this year was a few nights with -8 C (17,6 F if I did it correctly). My Charles de Mills did survive the two record breaking winters, with little snow and a lot of frost damage but not worse than it managed to form a few flowers the following summer. Temperatures in winter can be very shifting, a week or two with frost and then it thaws up again is the usual. It usually stays around freezing point, a bit under a bit over.

Thank you taoseeker for info. on your climate and Charles de Mills. Now I know which roses to be winterized in the garage in pots.

Hi Harmonyp: Father Jerome also likes Young Lycidas. Thanks for the info. on Blue Girl's scent, I won't buy it when I see at Walmart for $5. Burlington Roses in CA have Big Purple, Old Port (almost thornless), and Fragrant Plum for $10.95 each. Big Purple and Old Port were sold out when I placed my order last Christmas.

Angel Face, of course, has a heavenly scent. But it's an awful black spotter so I wouldn't recommend it. I keep around because it was Mom's and so has sentimental value.

Reine des Violettes is the mauve with the most fragrance in my garden. You can smell it from half way across the yard when it's in full bloom. It's thornless too!

I love Reine des Violettes for it's exceptional fragrance and exquisite blooms. Charles Mills deserves a place in the garden as does Munstead Wood... although I consider the latter two more burgundy than mauve so I'm cheating really :)

If The Ingenious Mr Fairchild were to be considered mauve/pink, I love the fragrance and also the peony bloom shape.

More lavender than mauve, but our new Neptune is doing okay (it is in the gopher battle zone and a bareroot planted in January) although like most of our new bareroots, she seems to like the straight single cane or two stance from the middle rather than on an edge of the plant.

Thank you, Diane, for a great analysis of scents in mauve. If I had asked Diane this question about mauve scent before, it would had saved me being confused about many mauves and kept changing orders on Chamblee's ($8 charge for changing order 4 times.)

Thank you, Seil and Roseraie on info. of Reines des Violettes and the scent of The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild. Mauve/pink is lovely to me.

Hi Kippy: I see the same sprouting pattern from Heirloom, only the middle cane sprouted (the side canes got dried out). I should had bought Heirloom when all 5 canes sprouted with leaves early spring. I hesitated since I wasn't sure about the thorns, until Kim gave me the info.

I saw Sterling Silver, a light mauve, at Walmart for $7. I didn't know that it's a great rose that sets hips for pollination until a HMF member praised that one. Next year I'll grab "Sterling Silver" from Walmart. It's in a gallon pot, with many branches and healthy leaves.

Charles de Gaulle is a fragrant, almost thornless one that Kim Rupert gave a good review. I'll grow mauve roses in pots so I can move them to partial shade when the sun is hot.

Strawberry, Sterling silver and its offspring, blue moon have a lemony fragrance. It's strong and i really like it. But to-may-to ......to-mah-to right?
I was interested in sterling silver too (still am) but this rose has what i'd call a polarized appeal from my readings of posts here.. Some love love it -- others hate hate it and think it should be remOved from commerce. I figure it's worth a shot at walmart prices ...if i can't find blue moon first.
Btw- my chrysler imperial is pretty much a deep pink- not far from stephen's big purple. (or william shakespeare 2000, ftm) It's not lemOny or fruity- but it is strong.

Strawberry, Sterling silver and its offspring, blue moon have a lemony fragrance. It's strong and i really like it. But to-may-to ......to-mah-to right?
I was interested in sterling silver too (still am) but this rose has what i'd call a polarized appeal from my readings of posts here.. Some love love it -- others hate hate it and think it should be remOved from commerce. I figure it's worth a shot at walmart prices ...if i can't find blue moon first.
Btw- my chrysler imperial is pretty much a deep pink- not far from stephen's big purple. (or william shakespeare 2000, ftm) It's not lemOny or fruity- but it is strong.

Thank you, lola-lemon for the info. on Blue Moon and Sterling Silver. The rose park has Chrysler Imperial, very compact, I like its color.

I wonder why people think Sterling Silver should be removed from commerce? Thanks for any info.

Intrigue...wonderful scent and beautiful flowers...although I don't know if it will make it through our winter...it's definitely worth it, to try :)

People dislike Sterling Silver because it is usually a very weak and sickly plant that puts out few flowers. The flowers are gorgeous but you don't get many for all the work the plant requires. It was a breakthrough in rose colors when it came out so it's a pretty famous name, even indifferent gardeners know that name so people ask for it specifically and then it dies on them and then they think 'roses are too hard to grow'. Stainless Steel is an improved version, a bit healthier and more floriferous with the same color and scent.

When I was the rose buyer at the local retail nursery there were a few roses that every customer knew the name of and would ask for and that I could have sold any number of: Peace, Mr. Lincoln, Tropicana, and Sterling Silver. I would carry the first two because they perform ok here but I refused to carry the last two because they don't grow well here and they turn people off of roses. Blue Girl too to a lesser extent, but same result for the gardener - won't grow. It's all marketing hype, just like everyone asks for Red Delicious apples and Concord grapes. neither of which grow well here, and there have been so many better varieties introduced since they came out.

Big Purple for me was more of a dark pink. Excellent fragrance, but not purple. Fragrant Plum and Melody Parfumee are both real mauve color and very fragrant but it's been a long time since I've grown them. Barbra Streisand was a weak grower for me but performed beautifully when I gave it to a friend with better soil.

I would try Blue Bayou as a good substitute for Sterling Silver. The two roses are extremely close in color (see HMF) and their lovely delicacy of bloom form. BB is a Kordes rose, and I think is pretty winter hardy. It certainly has been vigorous for me, growing to about five feet tall (very upright, not overly wide). My complaint about BB is it doesn't do well in our hot, very sunny summers. The blooms crisp very quickly. Diane

Thank you, reg_pnw, for info. on Sterling Silver as a weakling. Thank you, Diane for info. on Blue Bayou that is hardy to zone 5b.

I like mauve roses since they are low-thorn. I got pricked yesterday by Scepter d'Isle on the knee, and got a painful wooden sliver in the finger while hammering a post to restrain Austins' octopus canes. Today I was pulling off some crispy old leaves from Golden Celebration and got poked badly again, very painful.

Last year I had tons of thistles stuck in my fingers for months since I cut Austins for the vase. I had to pry my finger with a needle to get them out. I won't buy anymore Austins. I never got poked by hybrid teas (I had more than 20 in my last garden). Hybrid teas are compact, slender, and I can cut for the vase without getting poked. Hybrid teas size are 2' x 1' in my zone 5a, versus 5' x 5' for a large Austin.

Last year our climate was like England, lots of rain, I didn't spend much time in the garden. This year we have a drought, Austins grow gigantic octopus canes in the heat - there's pruning, daily watering, trimming, and more chance for injury with Austins' many thistles.