From fruity myrrh to TOMATO??!

last year

last modified: last year

Boscobel is new to the garden. So far, I found this rose very good for cutting; its long stems, flower size and color make for pretty bouquets. To my nose, the cut flower has a mild fruity-myrrh fragrance for 3 days, and then the fragrance seems to become rather vegetal… like a tomato!

Now, I like tomatoes just fine, but not necessarily when sniffing a rose, especially when it was more florally-appealing just the day before!

I’m familiar with fragrance decay of perfumes as one first experiences top notes, heart notes, and finally base notes. But I never would have imagined tomato being a base note!

Perhaps its not too far fetched for a nightshade to be associated with the home that would hide away Charles II during his flight after the English Civil War!

Has anyone else experienced such a shift in fragrance?

Featured Answer

Moses, Pitt PA, cold W & hot-humid S, z6

last year

last modified: last year

The most common shift in fragrance I have observed is from low to intense, depending on time of day, low in AM to strong in PM to negligible from evening on.

A shift from almost disagreeable sour tea scent in AM to sweet full cantaloupe/honeydew melon scent by PM on Sweet Chariot, the mini rose, is how I remember it being.

You experiencing a change in scent on a cut rose is common as a rose ages to its completion, where a simply vegetable/generic weak apple scent is all that the cut rose can muster.

Moses.

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Comments (7)

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beesneeds
last year
Do you mean tomato the fruit, or the plant? They smell very different.
jjkOC zone 10a/22, SoCal thanked beesneeds
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rosecanadian
last year
That's quite the change in fragrance. Maybe the fragrance will improve as the plant matures?
jjkOC zone 10a/22, SoCal thanked rosecanadian
jjkOC zone 10a/22, SoCal
Original Author
last year
@beesneeds, more like the fruit.

@rosecanadian, I very much hope so! I didn’t notice any fragrance of the fully open Boscobel at Otto & Sons, when I visited.
rosecanadian
last year
I think Diane said her's has a nice fragrance. But, YMMV. :)
jjkOC zone 10a/22, SoCal thanked rosecanadian
NollieSpainZ9
last year
Well I didn’t get tomato from Boscobel but I did dislike the fragrance! But then those myrrh/aniseed/medicinal/bitter almond notes are not appealing to my nose and whatever combination of those I got drowned out any fruity notes. Since the blooms mostly balled and mouldered in my humid climate last year, it probably isn’t a keeper for me. I will see how it goes in it’s second year.
jjkOC zone 10a/22, SoCal thanked NollieSpainZ9
jjkOC zone 10a/22, SoCal
Original Author
last year
@NollieSpainZ9, I normally like myrrh/anise fragrance, but the fragrance decay, for both cut flowers, and on the bush (as I just found out) is rather off-putting. Like you, I’ll monitor as it gets bigger, but this is the first rose in the garden I’ve encountered with such a dramatic shift in fragrance.