I personally like the myrrh fragrance of Strawberry Hill and Leander. But I do prefer the strong, sharp citrus/raspberry scent of plants like love potion and angelface. Such a shame the flowers themselves aren't anything special.

When I was a kid, my sister and i had a perfumed my little pony toy which had this really strong, musky smell. My mum hated it and ended up binning it. I had forgotten about it until I stumbled upon the rose ''sweet chariot''. That was it exactly!

I think it's called "damask". I like all kinds of fragrance.

I like all kinds of rose fragrances. If you carry a palmful of coffee beans or ground coffee and sniff the coffee between rose sniffs, you get a better idea of the complexity of the fragrances. The coffee clears the nasal palette.

You can report the spam by copying the url of the thread and clicking on "contact" below. There's an "abuse" catagory you can report to GW.

Categories of rose fragrance page on the Austin website is pretty interesting. DA got a retired perfumer to help him stiff and identify.

Here is a link that might be useful: rose fragrances.

I agree, there are several rose fragrances I'm not fond of, 'Distant Drums' being one example. Below is a link to the ARS site & an article about fragrance types.

Here is a link that might be useful: ARS article

That is a great link. I can attest that eglanteria have an apple scent, not just the flowers, but the foliage. I have a few and even now with just leaves, I can still smell the apples when I get near them.

Two books that have sections discussing rose scent are The Fragrant Year by Helen Van Pelt Wilson and Scent in Your Garden by Stephen Lacey.

Cath

Great thread!! Good information.

I cannot pass Young Lycidas without plunging my nose into a bloom. I love the fragrance, and like the OP, I do not know how to classify what I am smelling, having no useable point of reference. I will begin my quest by checking the D.A. Website and HMF. One of the top reasons for my rose selections is fragrance. I guess it is time to get a better idea of what it is that I prefer....

Lynn

It is a funny thing about myrrh fragrance. On a trip to the Huntington I checked the scent of the many David Austins. Didn't care at all for the ones with fragrance attributed to myrrh. Have since acquired numerous species roses with unusual scents that were hard to describe. This piqued my interest about them and made me want to investigate further. One of my neighbors is an ayurveda practitioner, so I asked her about myrrh. She has a bottle of it (which I understand is VERY expensive). She let me smell it, and to my surprise I liked it. Didn't smell anything like the icky perfume of the myrrh-scented David Austins.

Now the perfume of damask roses is something that really appeals to me, such as the oldie York and Lancaster. Old fashioned and intoxicating. Of all my roses though, my favorite also has the strongest and best (to my nose) fragrance, Felicite Parmentier. It is damasky with additional charming elements. Right up there vying for top spot in fragrance is Rosa californica 'First Dawn'. Like FP and YandL, this rose is a super wafter. But quite different from them, it has a strong clove and cinnamon influence mixed in with something sweet like damask. The other 2 are once-bloomers while First Dawn has excellent rebloom (however her flowers burn in temps over 100 degrees).

Melissa

Young Lycidas is described as having a "strong fragrance", tea fragrance was listed also. Sorry to hi-jack this thread a bit, but if any of you have Young Lycidas and possess a nose that knows, how would you describe the fragrance of YL?

Lynn

I happen to enjoy the "myrrh" fragrance in roses, but I don't think it is properly referred to as "myrrh." It really is best thought of as black licorice, anise, or intense fennel fragrance in my mind. I've only smelled real myrrh once at an herb and spice shop. I agree with Melissa that true myrrh fragrance is pleasant and different from the attributed rose scent.

Jay

I went out and got a Young Lycidas to sniff.

DA says " There is a delicious fragrance that changes markedly with the age of the flower; starting as a pure Tea scent and changing to a blend of Tea and Old Rose, with intriguing hints of cedar wood."

To this nose YL is Old Rose with a hint of citrus. It has complexity. I love YL's fragrance. It was an awful, awful plant at first but it has improved significantly. The flowers were awful at first also, misshapen and few petals. The flowers improved dramatically as the plant finally established. I ended up putting my two copies of YL together as one plant and it looks so much better.

Tamora is supposed to have a myrrh scent. To me it smells like salt water taffy. Different than Glamis Castle.

A classic HT Climber, Golden Showers, smells like honey.

One of my English roses is called 'Royal Jubilee'... my own jury is out on this one as to how much I like the rose, but one thing it certainly does have and that's fragrance... it's sweet, really sweet,.... almost sickly sweet... on the Austin site it describes it as having:-
''lovely rich fruity fragrance with hints of blackcurrant''.

..well...I don't pick up the blackcurrant nor would I describe it as 'fruity'... nor old rose or apples either... perhaps saccharin sweet?...

MD, here is a small list of some of the different fragrances for different classes of roses, that IâÂÂve read about:

Old rose, damask, gallica, sweet pea, myrrh, musk, baby powder, citrus, fruits (apples, raspberries, to name a few), tea scented, sweet tea, phenolic tea, Tupperware or fresh plastic, spicy (cloves, pepper), linseed oilâ¦.

Saying roses have the same scent is oversimplifying. They might have similar fragrance traits but they are all slightly different.

From what I understand old rose & damask scent are the same; my alba semi-plena, my miniature Sweet Chariot and Felicia have that in common. The 2 year old semi-plena has a subtle sweetness, whereas Sweet Chariot is more intense.

However, Felicia, a hybrid musk, (actually a hybrid multiflora) has a hint of myrrh to it, depending how close my nose is to the flower. I recognize the myrrh, because Tamora, a diminutive Austin, reeks exclusively of it.

As Melissa & Jay said, the original myrrh is quite different. I have burnt some frankincense, (a close relative of myrrh) and it somewhat tickles the nostril in a pleasant way, however the myrrh scented rose, to my nostrils is somewhat medicinal, camphoric and put it mildly not pleasant. Yet in small doses in Felicia it adds a little twist.

IâÂÂve had the opportunity to smell Oklahoma. To my nose, Oklahoma has a very rich, citrusy smell, combined with damask, but I wonâÂÂt classify it as old rose.

If you want that strong, sticky sweet turkish delight/attar of roses scent, you can't go past Francis Dubreuil AKA Barcelona. Another rose with a great fragrance is Restless.
Double Delight and Dolly Parton also have overpowering sweet rose perfumes, but I really dislike thier hybrid tea growth habit.

hoovb,

Thank you.

Lynn

La Reine and Young Lycidas have complex olfactory.

I don't like myrrh fragrance either!

I don't think myrrh is like fennel; I LOVE fennel - all parts and especially the seeds.

I was going to use 'Julia Child' as an example of the myrrh fragrance I don't like. I was going to use 'Julia Child,' but HMF describes her fragrance as: "Strong, anise, licorice fragrance."

My nostrils disagree; they say myrrh (or at least what we've been calling myrrh in roses).

However, those two (myrrh and fennel) do have something in common - a certain woodiness maybe, but that common note isn't the offensive part.

Anyway, 'Julia Child' is a truly beautiful rose that I refuse to grow because of its scent.

Would that those roses had frankincense scent instead of myrrh.

I endorse Francis Dubreuil AKA Barcelona strongly.

Did anyone mention the subtlety of sweet musk?

Thank you to wirosarian and hoovb.

About Austin roses, there is something particularly distinctive about both 'Evelyn' (- peaches?) and 'Jude The Obscure' ( - guava?)

Here is a link that might be useful: The Old Rose Fragrance page at David Austin Roses

This post was edited by sandandsun on Mon, Nov 10, 14 at 21:05

I agree with you on Julia Child. I detest the licorice scent also.

Ha, I wish the "myrrh" roses smelled like real myrrh too. Or frankincense. Or anything else really.

I like it in Felicia though, and I can probably tolerate Tamora, but only if i could sniff something a bit more "red rosey" immediately afterwards.

But the damask smell is definitely different to the 'old rose' smell. It doesn't have that sharpness. It still smells like that 'classic rose fragrance' used in some sorts of cosmetics, but different to my idea of a fragrant rose. Maybe it's the citrus or tea reference that I'm picking up on in the bourbons and roses like JtO? I don't know.

Even among scent lovers, perceptions vary so much that each person has to make her own inquiries. For example, my nose detects no trace of myrrh or liquorice in 'Felicia's fragrance, but rather a mixture of a sweet wafting scent, musk or Multiflora, and old rose. And while many consider 'Sombreuil's scent exquisite, to me it smells like plastic and green apple, not appealing at all; in fact it's about my least favorite rose fragrance. I like the so-called myrrh scent, though I agree it doesn't smell like myrrh, which I love. And Rosa foetida always reminds me agreeably of linseed oil (and its buds smell like Tang, of U.S. space mission fame).
So, while scent descriptions can be useful, you have to smell the roses yourself to know for sure.

wow, I had a similar experience,
when I was new to growing roses i knew I wanted only the most fragrant roses so I looked up those that had won fragrance awards and bought a 'Sunsprite'
Oh, Yuck! I hated the licorice scent and gave the bush away to a neighbor who was delighted with it.
These are the roses whose scents i do love
any rose that smells like what we think a red rose should smell like ( similar to that of a Damask rose)

Autumn Damask (a remontant Damask rose)
Cecille Brunner, in all its forms, climbing, Spray and original, mostly of damask, a bit of softness almost like face powder and a finish of white pepper from its China lineage.
Glendora' some damask scent with other scent notes.
Rosa moschata (the sweet smelling white Musk rose)

Most pink Noisette roses smell of damask rose and clove to me,
Catos Cluster and Blush Noisette.

Bourbon roses whose scent I enjoy;
Gloire des Rosomanes' lightly fragrant but has a wonderful spicy scent on its flower stems near the bloom. it has a bloom shape more like a China.

I love the varied scent notes found in the old garden Tea class (not Hybrid Tea) of which Mrs. B.R. Cant is a member.
Anna Olivier ' the strongest smelling old garden Tea in my experience has a good dose of damask scent from the Bourbon line in the Tea class, I think, plus fruit and spice notes.
Marachal Niel, smells yummy.
Etoille de Lyon which an author described as having a "delicious scent" to me it smells of honeysuckle and chantilly cream.
Comtesse Emmeline de Guigne' which to me smells of apricots and ripe plums.
Lady Hillingdon, ripe apricots and something I cannot describe.

once bloomers: white 'Rose of York' has a heavenly scent, a bit of damask and a bit of Ponds face cream type scent notes.
Altaica which is an r. spinosissima, a friend said it smelled of a "good quality French hand soap"

Lux.

About the myrrh scent in roses: On the first day of bloom Cymbeline smelled disgustingly of myrrh. On the second day of bloom it smelled delicious and distinctly different. I have no idea what was going on and have not had a chance to repeat the experiment.

Cath

One of my first DA roses was Ambridge Rose. I was excited to smell the myrrh fragrance as I do like the smell of myrrh. I took a whif and yuck! It smells like sugar free cherry bubble gum and bad cherry bubble gum at that.

Now Brother Cadfael, another first rose for me smells absolutely divine. It is my favorite scent for a rose. According to DA, its scent is similar to old burbon roses.

Both Munstead Wood and Lady Alexandra of Kent and Pretty Jessica have wonderful scents but not very strong. Could be the heat that we have had all summer long. I am anxious to see how they smell with the weather cooling down.

Sugar Moon is reminiscent vanilla and, just a little bit, raspberries. There definitely is some vanilla undertone in the fragrance. Especially when a fresh petal falls off and sits around for a day or two.

If you love rose fragrance in the daylight, you might like the night blooming jasmine under the moonlight. It smells wonderful, and super strong. :-)

You might find the linked references in the thread below interesting. I particularly enjoyed Tom Carruth's humor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rose scent classifications

Autumn Damask is my favorite so far that doesn't punch me in the nose. It's not the most handsome plant starting out and the petals rain on the ground with a gust of wind, but I gave it the prominent place by the front door for it's beautiful perfume.

Enough dissing of the myrrh! I have 3 Tamoras and I absolutely love their scent. If this is myrrh, then I am a myrrh-maid (ow, sorry).
Carding Mill's scent is similar to Tamora's, to my nose at least, but less intense.
Munstead Wood does have a fascinating smell but I haven't had enough blooms to really evaluate it.
Queen of Sweden, Alnwick Rose and Molineux have no odor I can detect.
Double Delight did have an enticing smell, but the plant failed to thrive and has been sp'd.
My one lone Falstaff bloom of the year had a mind-blowing scent -- I mean that in a good way -- but one bloom per season among two plants doesn't make it. SP looms.
Among my HTs, Don Juan is the clear winner, Mr. Lincoln second, and Granada third. Sometimes Granada has a scent, sometimes it doesn't.
Sonia Rykiel, while not generous with her blooms, does have a wonderful scent when on the scene.
However, it might not be wise to trust the judgments of a gardener with chronic sinus problems.. namely, me. ;(
Sylvia