Few plants have captured the imagination of gardeners, scientists, herbalists, and even theologians more than the Rose.

And, when you meander through a summer garden burgeoning with lush vegetation, silky blooms, and the most delicious fragrance - all provided by the rose - it is easy to understand why.

There is quite simply nothing to compare with watching a shimmering summer sun kiss the horizon whilst sitting amongst these most floriferous and sensuous plants. It is exactly at the moment of the kiss that the warm scent is at its most potent and the hue of the petals at their most intense.

This is precisely the experience that anyone seeking an English garden tries to achieve, and with many of the cultivars and species in flower now, nurseries and garden centres are full of specimens.

However, with flower forms ranging from the single petalled cups of the wild rose, through to the urn shaped buds of the florists rose, and then to the quartered rosette of the old English style - and with a kaleidoscope of colours and tints and tones - it is difficult to select a favourite. Then there is the huge variety of habits, from those that climb (or rather are tied) on trellises and walls with a ladder work stem structure. And a good example is the stunning climbing 'Iceberg', a vigorous and lush form producing milky white clusters of blooms with a delicate lemon fragrance.

Or there are the ramblers that send several flowering shoots into the canopy of trees, such as the tissue paper pink 'Albertine' which has a generous cluster of petals that ooze a heady scent. The bush forms come as the large single flower Hybrid Tea such as the luxurious, exotic, velvet red of 'Ingrid Bergman.' Most of the Hybrid Tea's require careful pruning and cultivation but there are some more straightforward cluster flowering forms such as the soft golden 'Harvest Fayre' on which several blooms are carried on a single stem.

These categories of the plants habit form - for many - the back bone of the quintessential English rose garden. But whilst these plants make delightful and beautiful specimens, appearing like the finest and most intricate marble sculptures with each demonstrating perfection in their unfurling petals, shapely buds, and symmetrical blooms, they are often too perfect. And, despite a long tradition and worldwide reputation for their cultivation, most are now considered a little too demanding for today's more relaxed style. A pity when you consider their tremendous contribution. In addition to their demanding reputation some gardeners claim that the roses of today don't smell like they used to. And while many argue to the contrary there is no doubt that the relentless breeding and selection over almost 4000 years of cultivation has sapped some of a sparkling vibrancy of character and effervescent personality from the plants.

When it comes to fragrance the scientists have proved that during the cross breeding of flowers the most vulnerable gene is the one responsible for scent, especially as the scent acts as an ageing agent on the petals, causing them to fall quickly. Therefore, breeders looking for a long flowering period in their roses deliberately reduce the presence of the scent gene; explaining why most florists roses, that are expected to have a good shelf life, have little or no fragrance. So, if the dream of wafting scent and heady fragrances filling your summer garden is to be fulfilled then before buying any plant, find one in flower, gently offer your nose towards the bloom, close your eyes and slowly, very slowly breath in.

Fortunately, there is a resurgence of interest amongst some gardeners for the scented rose blooms they recall from the idyllic days of their grandmothers garden. And to find such horticultural delights turn your eyes (and nose) towards the oldest of the roses, the plants that literally document the history of rose gardening and the societies that prized them. Plants like Rosa gallica officinalis, a loosely petalled rich pink bloom that was the main stay of the herbalist's garden in the thirteenth century. From which the Attar of Otto or Roses is extracted, an essential oil that is considered to be the most exclusive and evocative of all oils. And when it takes 30 blooms to make one drop and 60,000 blooms to produce 1oz it is easy to see why.

These roses were grown widely in Europe and are now concentrated in Bulgaria where commercial growers intercrop their roses with garlic, onions, parsley and lupins to improve the scent and deter pests. Try also the perpetual flowering 'General Jacqueminot', a rich crimson bloom of almost thirty petals, each with a white stripe on the underside. This plant, originally grown in the 1850's, has such a rich scent that when it was first introduced to America it is said that, weight for weight, it was eight times more expensive than gold.

Alternatively, grow R. 'Fantin-Latour', named after the prolific rose painter Henri Fantin-Latour who died in 1904. The origins of this plant are something of a mystery, but it is worthy of cultivation simply because it produces densely packed cluster of vivid pink petals that drips with a floral citrus scent, and is regarded as one of the finest of the 'Centifolias' or hundred petalled flowers. These earliest of cultivated forms are undoubtedly responsible for our passionate love affair with the rose, and while they are a little more difficult to find and care for than the modern forms, their purity of scent and intensity of colour warrants any gardeners' attention.

These plants capture the very essence of how a rose should smell, grow one, experience the passion and, I am sure the experience will never leave you.

Source - http://www.chrisbeardshaw.com/focus/focus_scented_roses.html

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