Yesterday I posted pictures of the yellow roses in our front yard. At the same time, the deep pink ones were blooming, so here are a pair of images to see! These flowers have very little scent, though they are quite showy. My husband and I have always wondered: "What is the point of a rose that has no fragrance?" This is something that has always perplexed me. So, I did some research!

In nature, only some wild roses are scented. The use of fragrant roses in Europe's past was important for medicinal purposes, flavoring food, and for masking unpleasant smells. This is why old-fashioned European roses are some of the most fragrant in the world.

When roses were first being cultivated in Europe, beautiful species and hybrids from China were introduced, and these flowers usually have no scent or just a light fragrance. With the blending of the many species and hybrids, a great many roses now have less scent than in the past, but breeders are working to reverse this.

The characteristic of a rose's scent is recessive. Just like brown hair and brown eyes in people, "scentlessness" is dominent. When a scentless rose is hybridized to a scented rose, the resulting hybrid will have little or no scent. Even hybridizing two strongly scented roses will often produce a rose with less scent than the original roses.

So, most of the most fragrant roses are old-style species and hybrids from Europe. However, climate can also be a factor in the fragrance of a rose. In fact, two identical rose bushes can be grown in two different climates, and in some cases, one plant will produce fragrant roses and the other will have no scent whatsoever! Also, a rose is most fragrant on a warm, sunny morning when the soil is moist, because the production of scent ingredients is strongest then. As the day advances into the afternoon, a rose's scent will diminish, and will sometimes vanish altogether until the next day!

And finally, did you know that there are many different types of rose scents? The seven basic scents that are most often found in hybrid roses include rose, nasturtium, orris (iris root), violet, apple, lemon, and clover. Some of the other scents are fern or moss, hyacinth, orange, bay anise, lily-of-the-valley, linseed oil, hone, wine, marigold, quince, geranium, peppers, parsley, and raspberry.

For more information about a rose's fragrance, I found a couple of pages to help in my research:
Rose Fragrance
A Nose To The Rose

If you find yourself interested in growing fragrant roses, here is a list of hybrids specially awarded for their extremely fragrant blossoms! The James Alexander Gamble Fragrance Award