Best perfume

1. 'Double Delight' (two tone cream and crimson)

2. 'Friesia' (yellow)

3. 'Rod Stillman' (violet-pink)

4. 'Papa Meilland' (dark red)

5. 'Fragrant Cloud' (brick red)

6. 'Jardins de Bagatelle' (pale cream)

7. 'Queen Adelaide' (deep mid-pink)

8. 'The Children's Rose' (soft mid-pink)

9. 'Sharifa Asma' (pale peach/apricot)

The following three are climbers and are not quite as fragrant as the others but are very useful when looking for a perfumed rose to grace a pergola or trellis.

10. 'Westerland' (golden orange)

11. 'Étoile de Hollande' (red)

12. 'Twilight Glow' (buff apricot)

Top five

Don has chosen his best five roses from this list. They are:

'Double Delight' - a very fragrant rose with attractive olive green foliage and nicely shaped two-tone flowers. The petals are ivory towards the centre but the major part of the fower is crimson. A medium sized rose to 1m (3') with a bushy habit.

'Papa Meilland' - a dark, velvety red flower with a deep, heavy fragrance. The flowers are high centred with pointed buds. The leaves are matt and mid-green in colour. The upright and vigorous bush grows to 1m (3') and can be used as a mass planting, as a climber on a trellis, or as a standard.

'Fragrant Cloud' - a very fragrant rose with brick-red flowers and dark olive-green foliage which has a reddish tinge when young. A medium sized rose (75cm/2.5') which can be used as a hedging plant, for cut flowers or as a standard rose.

'Jardins de Bagatelle' - large flowers with a sweet fragrance, the pale cream flowers have washes of palest pink and yellow through the petals. This rose has glossy green foliage.

'Sharifa Asma' - these blush pink blooms fade away to a pale pink, almost white colour. They are a heavily perfumed rose and the vigorous bush grows 1m tall and 75cm wide (3x2.5').

Availability

Roses can be purchased nearly all year round but in winter they are sold as bare rooted plants. Prices range between $12 and $18 depending on the type of rose.

These best scented roses were filmed at:

Ross Roses
St Andrews Terrace
Willunga SA 5172
Phone: (08) 8556 2555

This nursery, which has a large display garden, offers retail sales and mail order.

Contact your local rose specialist for the varieties mentioned. Roses can also be obtained by mail order from nurseries and specialist rose growers including:

Bleak House Rose Nursery
Calder Highway (PO Box 43)
Malmsbury Vic 3446
Phone: (03) 5423 2427 Fax: (03) 5423 2738

Brundrett's
Brundrett Road
Narre Warren North Vic 3804
Phone: (03) 9796 8305

Swane's Nursery
490 Galston Road
Dural NSW 2156
Phone: (02) 9651 1322 Fax: (02) 9651 2146

Contact these nurseries for a copy of their 1998 catalogue.

Further reading

For more information on rose care consult:
Growing Roses by Valerie Swane (Kangaroo Press, 1992)
The Ross Guide to Rose Growing by Deane Ross (Lothian Publishing, 1990)

Copyright CTC Productions 2006