| Membership | Price |
|---|---|
| Student | $55/year |
| Single | $85/year |
| Single Plus | $120/year |
| Family | $130/year |
| Family Plus | $175/year |
| Contributing | $250/year |
| Supporting | $500/year |
| Sustaining | $1,000/year |
| Benefactor's Circle | $2,500/year |
| Director's Circle | $5,000/year |
| President's Circle | $10,000/year |
The Scent of Roses
July 8, 2022
By Ali Brown, Volunteer, Royal Botanical Gardens
As you walk along a trail you don’t notice them right away, hiding just off the main path and surrounded by greenery, however your attention is immediately grabbed when the wind blows towards you, and you inhale the unmistakable perfume of roses.
When you stop and let your nose scan around there they are, the lovely rose, Rosa multiflora, commonly called rambler rose. This is one of the many beautiful imports from Japan which, since its introduction in 1886, has become invasive. Humans are not often reminded of the power of our sense of smell and allowed entry into the wonderful world of our canine friends whose daily experience is organized around their amazing sense of smell.
Form Over Fragrance?
Many of us are the products of an age which valued the visual properties of a rose bloom or the ability of a rose to repeat bloom over the scent when rating rose varieties. As a result, the importance of fragrance declined, and many newer varieties literally had no smell.
Later in the day, I strolled RBG’s Rose Garden where the garden’s designer (Peter Kukielski), had wisely selected many varieties which have a memorable ‘rose scent’. We all have a feeling about the ‘the scent of roses’ is which often has more to do with Yardley hand soap or an elderly relative who always ‘smelt good’ than from actually smelling a rose. However, modern roses bring scents beyond what we may usually consider.
Touring the Rose Garden by Scent
Touring the Rose Garden using our noses as our guide, fills us with wonder. The first thing we notice is that when we are guided by our noses instead of our eyes, we are attracted to a completely different group of flowers. Our selection isn’t dominated by a particular colour, flower shape or petal number but is a heterogeneous group of many colours and different shapes. When we study our selection and put each flower through the smell test, we realize the scents of roses are as varied as their colours.
The scent of each rose is a unique blend of many different odours and is classified as one of the seven main rose scents: damask, nasturtium, orris (like violets), violets, clove, apple and lemon fruit. The basic blend of these elements is subtly adjusted with the addition of other shades from 26 other distinct odours as varied as parsley and citrus.
Not only do different varieties of roses have different perfumes, but the smell changes depending on the time of day or season, early or late, whether it is on the rose bush or a cut flower in a vase or over the length of a single inhale of breath.
Curator Favourites
Here are a few of the Rose Garden‘s “must smells” according to RBG’s Curator of Collections, Alex Henderson.
Rosa ‘Thérèse Bugnet’
Old rose fragrance.
Rosa ‘ZLEeltonStrack’ sold as: ABOVE AND BEYOND™
Sweet rose, citrus and raspberry fragrance.
Rosa ‘Ruselliana’
Light to old rose fragrance.
Rosa ‘KORgeowim’ sold as EARTH ANGEL
Mild spice fragrance.
Rosa ‘AUSmixture’ sold as OLIVIA ROSE AUSTIN
Fruity fragrance.
Final Thoughts
Although we are fascinated by the scent of roses and drawn to the flowers, we are not the main audience. The primary audience is the many pollinators which are essential to the rose’s reproductive cycle. Walking through the Rose Garden you’ll often find those blooms with the strongest scent to you, may also play host to the highest concentration of bees, butterflies and more.
Next time you’re in Hendrie Park, take a stroll through the Rose Garden and follow your nose; you may be surprised by which cultivars become your new favourites!
More from the RBG Blog
Check out RBG’s blog for announcements, articles, and more from Canada’s largest botanical garden.
Want to be sure you hear first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to hear about upcoming events, weekend activities, articles, and more!
