I cannot imagine the magical land where roses reliably waft their fragrance that far and that strongly. Where I'm from, the air is dryyyyy dry dry and the real fragrant wafters are almost never roses in my garden.

Even my most fragrant roses do not waft their fragrance further away than a few inches from the blooms, so no, I do not have to account for that. I do have some fragrant plants which do share their fragrance for several feet, and sometimes through windows into the house, but not roses. My most energetic scent spreader is star jasmine (which is not even a true jasmine). It comes in through the kitchen window and spreads its scent around.

Jackie

GASP! @catspa_zone9sunset14, that is the most HUGEST rose I've ever seen. Uh, it looks like it's overrun a tall... 60' TREE? OMG. However do you prune that 'Jaune Desprez'? Oh wait, I guess maybe you don't prune roses like that. I must be dreaming... lol. It's beautiful!

@jacqueline9CA, I have a Confederate Jasmine by the driveway. And yes, at night it's very scenty. very! Everyone, great point about the difference in fragrance holding/wafting depending on dry or humid air.

Anyone know which rose fragrances do NOT blend well together... example (i'm just making something up) musk and fruity?

It's a bay laurel tree (Laurus nobilis), which I grew from a little 4" slip way back when. The height is more on the order of 25', maybe a little more. The rose and the tree seem to get along okay. Nope, no pruning, except to keep overlong dangling canes off the roof and from interfering with the path. I do try to cut out whatever dead brush I can get to as a gesture toward tidiness, for what that's worth in this situation! The rose more or less does what it wants (and has the thorns to back that up).

Ah... I have a 10 year old Bay.. it grew from 3" to about 2' tall in 10 years. I'm about to move it somewhere it will like it better. Needs more sun I think.

I live in coastal California, where the humidity is moderate year-round. Rarely very high or very low. When my front yard roses are in full bloom (or even if a lot of them are), the fragrance wafts easily to the sidewalk and the driveway. People notice. But there's never a clash of fragrances :-D

@susan9santabarbara That must be amazing. Jealous! You live in the perfect place for roses :)

I'm never sure if it is a bug or a feature. In my yard, the early yellows and the first spinossisimas bloom at the same time as the lilacs. Both are capable of wafting over a good portion of the yard. Often, I'll smell one, then the wind changes, and I smell the other.

wow, I love lilacs too. Can't grow them down here. @mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY) your yard must be one that 'smells like heaven'... I'd bet. NIIIICCCCE

I am in a very humid climate. Winters are usually drier and remind me a lot of Cal or AZ winters. Our hurricane season starts in May and carries through the summer/early fall. We can get showers every other day or so, in the summer, or at least just enough to steam it up. Scent really wafts in the summer when its warm and steamy. I don't notice any clashing of scents. Citrus, Night Blooming Jasmine (Cestrum Nocturnum), Banana Shrubs (strong banana & vanilla), Michelia alba (strong lemon & vanilla jasmine), White Butterfly ginger/hedychium, & the Gardenias are the major Scent Bombers in my yard. The fraginpani are quite strong too in the right conditions. I can smell certain roses pretty strong but if these other plants are pouring out perfume, you only smell roses if you get closer to them. Some roses like Musnstead Wood, are major wafters, if no heavy hitters are blooming to overpower the scent.

I dont get any actual clashing of scents though. Maybe since one scent can overpower the others my brain just picks up on the most prevailing one?

Night blooming jasmine, when it is blooming, can overpower everything, even Meyer Lemon and Oranges (the strongest citrus) and it is very cloying & sweet and can be smelled way down the road. At least, they are only blooming at night and not fragrant during the day.

Curious you mention Gardenia. Which Gardenia do you have?

There are gardenias in the ground here that were here when we moved in. One is right off the back porch and blooms all the time. If I had to guess, I would say they are August Beauty.

I also brought my gardenias from my old house (also in FL). They are Mystery, August Beauty, and my very favorite Double Tahitian.

The Double Tahitian has huge flowers and blooms constantly Spring-Fall. It is intensely fragrant. Mine has always been potted and it is very happy that way. It is hardy to zn 10 so you may be able to grow it in the ground if your soil is agreeable. Lowes has been selling them as a standard the last few yrs.

I am in Central Florida , hot & humid . Roses never waft here for me , I have to put my nose very close to smell them . Gardenias & night blooming jasmine do waft here though .

Ah, @Pink Rose(9b, FL ), I'm hoping to pick up a Gardenia today. Since we are ripping out 2/3 of the front anyways, I might as well go Whole HOG! lol. Today, we got the 2nd ginormous 6' rootball of areca palm out of the ground. Phew! DH is washing the sand/dirt out of it's roots so we can chain it to the truck and pull out where the trash guys from the town can get it with the clamp truck. ONE MORE TO GO (and that's just the ones at the front... sigh). I'm sooooo happy! (And sore. very sore. let's not talk about THAT tho.....) grin

Wow, catspa, I had no idea that Juane Desprez could get that huge, nor have such strong pinkish tones. I thought she was an apricot/yellow. I just got a band pot of Juane Desprez from Burling several weeks ago, and, as I mentioned on another thread, most of the bands I bought from her had multiple plants in them which I gently separated when I potted them up to one gallon pots. Juane had two, so I now need to decide where is the best spot for these beauties. How close to the trunk of the tree is your JD planted?

catspa, I have no words about your rose. You should be so proud of having this beauty in your yard.

In my dry climate the only thing that ever wafted its fragrance was the neighbor's orange grove, and that I could enjoy every winter. Many of those trees have died in the drought, but when we had rain a while ago I was able to enjoy it again, which was lovely.

I couldn't keep blooms of "Portland from Glendora" inside because the fragrance was overwhelming, but I could never smell it outside.

@judijunebugarizonazn8 'Jaune Desprez' is only pale yellow here early on, when temps are cool, or in the shade; otherwise, it has at least a pinkish cast (though petals are mostly yellow, close-up) and, in the heat of summer, is definitely pale, warm pink. I guess pink + yellow is sort of apricot, but never a true apricot, in my experience. It is planted about 6 to 8 feet away from the trunk of the tree. I was thinking of training it along the fence and wasn't planning on letting it climb the tree, but it decided otherwise -- it was so vigorous.

I should mention, because some folks have complained about this, that it repeats very well and almost always has some flowers on it a large part of the year here, but it didn't do that so much until it was well-established, about 5 years in the ground, so patience will pay off. The plant in my photo is about 12 or 13 years in the ground.

Edit to add that in the first half of the 1800s, when it originated, "yellow" was a big sell when it came to roses, so of course that was the part of its coloration that was emphasized.