The Scented Garden - Part 2

Are roses your favourite plant? Are you looking for a really strongly scented variety for your garden? Would you like to know how to find a rose with the same name as a member of your family, or a friend?

The amount of scent a rose contains governs my attraction to a variety, followed closely by the colour, then the shape of the flower, and finally the kind of hips the plant bears. But disease-resistance is important too. How much does type of foliage influence a person’s choice, I wonder? These are six of the many wonderful roses valued for fragrance.

*Rosa ‘Blessings’ – pink, highly scented, large-flowered bush rose

*Rosa ‘Margaret Merril’ – very fragrant, white cluster-flowered bush rose

*Rosa ‘The Times Rose’ – scented, crimson, large-flowered floribunda

*Rosa ‘Sharifa Asma – delicate pink blooms with a strong fragrance; upright growing habit

*Rosa ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ - a fragrant thornless climber with carmine flowers

*Rosa ‘Evelyn’ – strongly fragrant, pale apricot ‘New English’ shrub rose

*Rosa ‘Shocking Blue’ – very fragrant floribunda

Fragrant hedge rose

For a rose hedge that will stand up to blustery weather try the scented ‘Roseraie de l’Hay’, previously voted top favourite of the old fashioned roses by British rose growers.

If you like old roses, you will be pleased to hear that Ros Wallinger has collected many of the mainly rare, pre 1908, roses for the Gertrude Jekyll garden that she has carefully restored. So if you live in the area, try to visit the Wild Garden at the Manor House, Upton Grey, Basingstoke, Hampshire, where numerous rose species grown on supports hang in garlands of pale flowers. There is also a Formal Garden to the rear of the house.

Rose for the Queen Mother

In 1990 Mattocks Roses were asked by the Royal United Kingdom Benefit Association to name a rose after their royal patron, The Queen Mother. This year the nursery has produced two collections to celebrate Her Majesty’s forthcoming 100th birthday. The Royal Collection contains ‘Rose Queen Mother’ (semi-double soft pink), ‘Royal William’ (fragrant red), ‘The Queen Elizabeth’(pink), ‘Princess of Wales’ (cream to white).

Choose a name

Do you know that many roses exist with names that could be similar to family names? For example: ‘Heavenly Rosalind’, ‘Just Joey’, ‘Our Molly’, ‘Blushing Lucy’, ‘Shining Ruby’, ‘Lady Rachel’, ‘Sarah’, ‘Nicola’, ‘Mary Rose’. But some varieties are more scented than others. The British Rose Growers Association sell a booklet called Find That Rose – a useful guide to locating nurseries and roses.

This week, I was invited to The Royal National Rose Society’s Gardens of the Rose, in Hertfordshire, for the British Rose Awards Day. On my way to the rose trial fields, I passed a rose-bed labelled The Old World Collection, and noticed Alchemilla mollis growing with Rosa moyesii, R. macrophylla, and R. rugosa. A fuchsia with pale pink, tiny flowers was planted in the same bed, and lavender was nearby.

Roses climbing on brick pillars and over the top of wooden beams to form shady arches were memorable - although roses entwined round timber posts, in a line with ropes between, and roses on plant supports, were equally beautiful. And on the trial field it was obvious that foliage enhances the overall appearance of a rose. The variety ‘Irish Eyes’ is more attractive as a growing plant, than in the catalogue photograph of the blooms.

Award winners

Among many awards, ‘Remembrance’ (red flowers and dark, glossy foliage) won Best Cluster-flowered and Overall Champion for Harkness New Roses at the British Rose Awards 2000, held at the National Rose Society’s Gardens of the Rose this week. ‘Golden Celebration’ gained the Best Shrub Rose and the Best Scented Rose awards for David Austin Roses.