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Scents-less Roses?

© Carol Wallace

As a child, I remember sniffing the roses in my mother's garden because she told me that they smelled of tea.

Fragrance is supposed to be one of the strongest triggers for memories available. Unfortunately, stopping to smell the roses triggers nothing for me. My mother grew Hybrid Teas. I used to bury my nose deeply in the blossom, trying to find that scent. Sometimes it was there -- but only barely.

That is precisely because they were hybrids. While we think "perfume" when we think "rose," many of the Hybrid Teas on the market today lack that valuable characteristic. They were bred for hardiness and repeat bloom. The scent somehow fell by the wayside. So when I did that "girl" thing and buried my nose in the long-stemmed roses a suitor sent me, I wondered again why I had this compulsion to stick my schnozz into something so unrewarding.

Not all roses, however, are so miserly with their riches. While even the heirloom Tea roses are a bit light on scent, other types have glorious fragrance. You rarely find it in the familiar long-stemmed roses that come in a box wrapped in tissue -- the American Beauty type where form reigns supreme. But look back in time.

The epitome of scent, according to many, is found in the old Musk rose ('Rosa Moschata'). Gallicas are especially fragrant, as are the Hybrid Musks. Bring in a bouquet of Damask rose and the house will smell glorious! Add Centifolia, Alba, Moss and Bourbon roses to the list of especially fragrant flowers.

Musk roses have the unusual characteristic of carrying their scent in the stamens rather than the petals. The Rosa eglanteria is famed for its apple-scented foliage. But most roses carry their fragrance at the base of the petal -- which is why rose petals make such a good ingredient for potpourri.

If fragrance is such a valuable attribute, why is it absent from so many modern roses? Because we got greedy. We wanted roses that bloom all summer.

To get reblooming roses, hybridizers used the China roses -- and they are the least scented of roses. This was crossed with a mix of Portland and Bourbon roses to produce the Hybrid Perpetual. Then, to get the high-centered long stemmed form of the Hybrid Tea rose of today, the Tea rose came to dominate the mix. Tea roses essentially descend from the species roses, using Noisettes and the barely scented China for the repeat bloom characteristics -- plants with only light fragrance. Species roses tend to be fragrants, as are Noisettes, but somehow, in this mix, the fragrance gene seemed to recede. Thus, many although by no means all of the hybrid tea roses we grow today lack much in the way of scent.

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