An unidentified rose that I saw yesterday, brought to Autumn in the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden.

The blooms were HUGE cups, with gorgeous stamens. Warm, pale pink buds opened to cream-colored cups that darkened to light pink as they aged. The fragrance (and I can't smell a lot of roses -- allergies) was INTENSE -- a strong fruity fragrance with just a hint of an astringent back-note. Really remarkable.

Jeri

Jeri,
which rose garden is the Heritage garden? Is that the one by Guadalupe, or the other garden on Naglee between Bascomb and The Alameda?

Grande Dame has a nice smell. I was out walking through the garden this morning, and her scent wafted over and drew me near. I'm pretty impressed with that rose all around. It's a new plant from this summer, but already it's at eye level with me (I'm 5'6) and has huge flowers with a strong scent.

Yay for Sugar Moon. I have that on order from Chamblee. :)

My absolutely favorite rose to sniff, and to admire, is Pope John Paul II. I have two, and am considering lining my entire front walk with PJPII. The white stays brilliant white in good weather, and the blooms repeat, and the bush itself is pretty (for HT). My two year old has 18 buds/blooms on it right now, and stands maybe 4 foot tall. It's a fairly responsible grower, too, staying upright and not flopping about.

I'm new to rose gardening, so take my opinion for what it's worth...but to me, PJPII is magical.

Best-
Herding Cats

I will second "Grand Dame". Bought three of those in August at the 60% off sale and she is going gangbusters. Hot clear pink with some white.
I am loving "Twilight Zone". It's a purple/dusky red velvet FB that is extra spicy and really "sexy". Very "Moroccan Souk" kinda vibe.
Unusual fragrance among the collection I have.
I was digging trenches around some of my roses and I kept getting this whiff on the breeze. Actually got up from my kneeling position and investigated. It was TZ.
Beautiful bush and disease free this year.
Susan

Belinda's Dream. I can smell it from about 10' away.

I think you should have bought Paradise Found. It is my absolute favorite rose (I grow them in pots). The fragrance is indescribable and strong while the blooms are plentiful, huge and long lasting. What a rose!!!
Here is one of my pictures.

Beautiful photo Canadian Rose. Paradise Found is one of my first on the list to order. I do have a Belinda's Dream, Sunsprite, Golden Wings (haven't noticed a fragrance yet, but she's very young), and Twilight Zone. Hmmm, Pope John II - not sure I'm ready for another white, but on my radar. I've sniffed a few Grande Dames at Navlets, and they didn't strike me as very fragrant, but perhaps it was the time of day - late afternoon. Wirosarian - what are your dislikes about Distant Drums?

So far on my order list are for fragrance are: Paradise Found, Della Reese, and Neptune. Somehow some non (or not very) fragrant made it onto the list too: Red Intuition, The Imposter, Dark Night and Lady of Shalott.

My other favorite newbie for me is Stainless Steel. She is just fabulous in fragrance and form and makes the most beautiful cutting rose. I'd sure like to find a few more super fragrant cutting roses...

Sheila's Perfume is awesome!

Fragrant Plum is yummy.

Frederic Mistral is an exquisite rose with an exquisite scent, the best in my garden, followed by Evelyn, Jude the Obscure, Big Purple, Ebb Tide, Angel Face, and I hope (need to go out and check) Twilight Zone. I know I've left out some, but these come to mind right now. Give FM a try! Diane

Tahitian Sunset has a lovely and unusual fragrance, I like this rose very much. I only add this to the list, because it's a new type of fragrance to me. Halloween has a very wonderful scent too.

Sonia Rykiel is fantastic. Another great one is Rouge Royale. I agree with others that this rose takes a few years to get comfortable and then becomes a good grower. It bloomed in the the high 90s but I had to bring the flowers in or it got toasted by midday.

PJPII is a dream rose. I have one in front and one in back. The flowers lasted well in the heat. Another sweet summer rose has been Radox Bouquet. The fragrance reminds me of Frederick M. The flowers are more ruffled and in sprays.

Here is Radox this spring after a gentle rain.

Ms. Moonbeam,

That is just so Wrong! No more pinks! I made a rule! What about those folks that LOVE pink? If I'm enamoured, however will they resist?
Mouthwatering photos of such incredible beauty are just wrong I say!
And they're VERY fragrant too?
Honestly, torture. I think there are laws against torture!

All fun aside: Wow!
Thank you. You must be very very pleased.

I take no credit for this. This plant does not get any better care than any other. It is tall and narrow and if I knew that I would have given it a different spot. But it's happy so it stays where it is, laughing down on poor Queen Elizabeth as if it has stolen her crown. This picture makes me miss the rain so much. We are going to get Santa Ana winds next after this heat and the rain is still a long time off.

Hi Kitty - yes, I love Sonia Rykiel's rasp. scent. Thanks for that pic. of Raddox Bouquet ... I love its ruffles.

My top fav. scent, after visits to Cantigny's park (over 1,000 bushes) and my own garden of 40+ scented roses ... is Kim Rupert's Annie Laurie McDowell, 100% thornless, its lavender and lilac scent is very calming and pure heaven:

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My next fav. scent is Firefighter, one bloom can perfume the entire room. It's almost thornless, and smells good until the petals fall apart. Crimson Glory and Mirandy smell good in my garden, but Firefighter beats both in its intensity and duration.

The 3rd fav. scent is 2007 Romantica "Sweet Promise", almost thornless. It smells fresh like an apple orchard. See the orange bloom below.

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My 4th favorite scent is the intense wild rose scent of Basyes Blueberry. Dr. Basyes of Texas is a genius when he created BB: 100% thornless like Kim's Annie, super-disease-resistant, and drought-resistant. The drawback? The bloom shatters quickly. Kim made an offspring, Joyberry, out of Basyes Blueberry. Both breeders, Paul Barden and Robert Neil Rippetoe, raved about Joyberry's wonderful scent.

Joyberry is available at LongAgoRoses, NC, in the near future. Joyberry is deep pink, more petals than Basyes Blueberry.

My 5th favorite scent is mini "Norwich Sweetheart". It beats my mini "Scentsational". It's a fresh and uplifting scent. The bloom is large, and full of ruffles once opened. Others favorites: Sonia Rykiel (rasp. rose), Frederic Mistral (perfume), Radio Times (sweet damask), Mary Magdalene (frankincense), Golden Cel, Honey Bouquet ( musk & honey in my alkaline soil), Francis Blaise (floral myrrh), Versigny (apricot pie), Liv Tyler (peach nectar), Evelyn (floral peach), and last is Double Delight (lychee fruit).

Minflick -- That would be the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, located at Spring & Taylor Streets in San Jose, CA. Part of the Guadalupe Park and Gardens complex.

Jeri

Hmmm, what refined noses you all seem to have! I confess to rarely actually sniffing my roses (although Mr.Camps has his nose in one or the other continually). I do, however, require copious whiffs of the common old Halliana honeysuckle (still blooming by my gate even now) to keep my equilibrium. It is during the winter and early spring when I get my fragrance rush - winter honeysuckle, witchhazel, wintersweet, and the odd out of sync blooming auricula (a single fugitive auricula has kept me sane over numerous months and weeks of dull greyness).....and then, there are the jonquil narcissi and common primroses - matchless and priceless - not a rose to touch them (ducks, and gets coat)

Hi Suzy: I agree with you about fragrant plants like Honeysuckle, witchhazel, mock orange ... The Morton Arboretum here have a fragrant garden, which I love to visit, it has a psychological calming effect. If I expand my front door garden, I'll put in more fragrant plants. The exception is Gardenia, too strong for me.

I'm a fan of Nahema rose like you are, Camp. It's 100% clean here too, very disease resistant. Nahema's blooms have exquisite beauty that can't be captured by a camera. Its petals are like traslucent buttercream frosting on a cake, and smells delightful. Jay-Jay in the Netherlands thinks Nahema smells better than Gertrude Jekyll, and I think Nahema smells better than my Radio Times. To my nose, Nahema smells like floral, musk, carnation, and citrus. My own-root Nahema is 100% thornless and grows like a stiff shrub, rather than a climber.

LongAgoRoses in North Carolina sells Nahema, Well-being (yummy like Jude the Obscure), and Annie Laurie McDowell (100% thornless with lavender and lilac scent). Burlington Roses in CA sells Annie, Basyes Blueberry, Comte de Chambord (great scent), and Paul Neyron - I'll put him above Nahema in scent, since I'm a fan of Old Garden Rose scent, pure heaven. Below is a picture of Nahema, its beauty shows better in a vase:

Aussie site Rankins Rose wrote this about Nahema: "velvety cupped double petals with a big perfume of citrus, peach apricot, pear and rose. The renown perfume of Guerlain is based on the essence of this rose."

The Austin rose, Jubilee Celebration (container) is stronger to my nose than my Mr. Lincolns (7 in the ground), Sharifa Asma (2 in containers), Jude the Obscure (container), Belinda's Dream (container) and Double Delights (5 in the ground) in my garden. I mention, in the ground vs. containers because there seems to be a slight difference (to me) with the same plant in the ground vs. in a pot. Could be all in my head though!

Lee

Campanula, I think I understand your perspective of the fragrance of roses in comparison to sidewalk stoppers like Honeysuckle and for me, Star Jasmine.

I sit in a bullpen (well, not with Bull's so much - maybe a few ) for the better part of my weekdays. So my weekly enjoyment of my garden is in multiple vases (geek vases - like Olive and Honey glass jars) on my desk. Our bullpens are about 16'x16' with 4 people in each corner - no cubicles per se, to entice geeky non typically communicating people to talk to one another about designs, issues, etc. Then bullpens connected to more bullpens, loop. The barriers are low and clear, so we can all see one another. It is quite cool.

My roses intoxicate our entire bullpen, and waft into others. Thankfully my guy geek companions don't mind them. Yesterday I had 3 vases. I bring in one a day during blooming season (most of the year here), and am finding more fragrant roses that will last long in a vase, so the vases start accumulating.

I have found that although I have many gorgeous non-fragrant roses, that for inside, while all my other senses are fully engulfed in coding, that my nasal senses get to experience something else. The fragrant roses bring me so much joy during my work weeks.

I'm loving the new ideas from this thread. I've looked up each one I don't have. So far the ones that have knocked me a little silly are Sheila's Perfume and Radox Bouquet (oh, that photo Kittymoonbeam - I'm drooling). Think I am going to add PJPII due to this thread and this forum, and as I'm looking all these sumptious pinks, forgot I need to add one I'm surprised I never bought, which is Memorial Day.

I said I was going to stop around 80. Then the gophers came and I almost quit. Now 60% of my roses are caged, the rest slated for caging soon now that the weather has cooled down. And I see myself hitting the century mark in numbers by spring.

Fighting the gopher fight really reinforced my passion. It has allowed me to SP roses when prior I was a steadfast non SP'er. Who wants to go through the work of digging up and caging a rose one doesn't like?

The iterations of our lives and our gardens is really a marvel...

Campanula,

I understand too. (I enjoyed your post very much, harmonyp)

The white ginger is blooming now and I get tipsy each morning lately before the coffee has really taken effect. The acidanthras started before the ginger and now I dread leaving either. The tea jasmines are considering starting again - maybe one day I'll actually dry some blossoms for tea.

In desperate times I maul the marjoram and the rosemary - more the rosemary because the marjoram isn't nearly as resilient to the attacks of a fragrance fiend. I learned that lesson with the thyme which sadly has not been replaced.

And although they aren't "classy," the deep pink and the thoroughly saturated yellow perennial four o'clocks make the summer evenings without roses very pleasant indeed.

My honeysuckle is old enough this year to rebloom occasionally - in previous years it only spring flushed, and I share your joy in that. And before the roses are likely to find the temps satisfactory and after the four o'clocks no longer do, the night blooming jasmine will make the dark air heavy with perfume.

Yes, campanula, I understand.

Ah yes, Harmony, I can absolutely see why sensual stimulation is so important in an enclosed office situation. For modern human beings, even centuries of indoor life, rampant industrialisation and urban overcrowding has failed to overcome the deep desire to connect with the natural world and fragrance works on several levels to affect our well-being. Research has demonstrated the primacy of scent as a means of capturing memories, evoking deep emotional states and aiding creativity and even intellectual endeavour. More subtle but infinately more powerful than colour, form or sound, the sense of smell is frequently overlooked in favour of the more obvious triggers. A newborn infant, rootling around at the breast, has a highly developed sense of smell but as we grow older, it seems that this sense is often overlooked and may even be lost. I certainly hope you continue to get joy from providing yourself and fellow workers with such a lovely addition to what is often a fairly sterile environment. If I was a less harassed and scatty person, I could be persuaded to cut roses for inside too but sadly, my track record of indoor flowers is not good - dusty vases with half an inch of brown fetid liquid and a few brownly wilted blooms does not inspire anything other than irritation at my general slovenliness so it's outside, doing their own thing for me.

Citrus

I think that is my favorite scent in the garden. I have added a bunch of new trees and they flower at different times, I am hoping as they get mature more of the year will be filled with their scent.

There is nothing like a nice drive through the orange groves in Fillmore on a day when you can roll the windows down

Star Jasmine smells nice, but one 1g plant left by the neighbors garage (she got it as a gift) has enveloped one side of our shared yard, makes for a lot of pruning of that vine for me.

On the fragrance discussion--went to my first rose show today. I was drunk on the fragrance of certain roses while my mom said they had no scent to her. Several of the roses she particularly liked had no fragrance for me.
I found that very interesting...
Harmony, what other roses make your toes tingle?
Susan

Mmmm Susan, my toe tinglers that are in my garden:

Crimson Glory
Chrysler Imperial
Pink Peace
Double Delight
Stainless Steel
Fragrant Cloud (acquired taste for me, wasn't love at first sniff)

Darned Close to Toe Tingling:

Heirloom
Sunsprite
Bolero
Ebb Tide
Sugar Moon
Young Lycidas
Elle
Twilight Zone
Oklahoma

That I've sniffed at nurseries and plan to add:

Paradise Found
Memorial Day
Neptune

I'm definitely a "modern rose" gal, so do not have the experience with the fragrances of the older roses.

Blue Moon was in there in its first year, but I think it's decided it doesn't like my soil, and has gone into dud mode (2 plants, 2 different locations). Too bad, it had a heavenly citrus fragrance.

I understand about the citrus trees.

During my first visit to Florida (we won't confess how many decades ago that was), I was in Orlando, someone recommended that I take a drive on Orange Blossom Trail. The citrus groves were blooming I was told. And it was suggested that I might enjoy the drive.

I put all the windows down and I have never in my life forgotten the experience of that evening. Neither have I had many experiences which compare. I really did not want to go back to the hotel.

I've been told that the groves are long gone now - sold for housing development. I don't remember the person that sent me out there, but I'll forever be thankful for the memory provided.

I would recommend Yves Piaget. The fragrance is akin to and rivals Double Delight but with pomaceous/berry notes which I think balances it out well.
It's one of my favorite scented roses and I am a fragrance nut so take my word for it.

Sweet Chariot can be treat to your nose, but it's not always fragrant for most people so it seems. But when you can sense it, boy, it will knock your socks off. It's a very good but unusual scent that is very different from your typical rose such as Double Delight.