Roses are pretty spectacular all on their own, but add beautiful fragrance to their long list of positive attributes, and they’re simply irresistible! These long-lived shrubs are a great way to make your garden extra special—there are numerous flowers on each plant, many rebloom until frost, they grow in a huge range of colors, shapes and sizes and have a variety of fragrance profiles. With about 150 species and thousands of hybrids and cultivars, there are a lot of fragrant roses to choose from. And even though ‘Winifred Coulter’, Golden Gate™ and ‘Excellenz Von Schubert’ in these photos are three different types of roses, they all have an enticing scent.
Rose fragrance is a combination of volatile oils released from glands on the petals. The more petals a bloom has, the more fragrant it usually is. If you really want to know what scent a particular rose has, walk through the garden center on a morning when temperatures are 65 to 70 degrees F, when the oils are at their peak. As the day warms up, the oils evaporate.
Now let’s take a look at some ways you can use fragrant roses in the garden and meet a few more you may want to grow.
