Because fragrance is a great selling point, mail-order rose catalog descriptions never keep fragrant rose varieties a secret. To further narrow your choices, you can always look for those that have been awarded the American Rose Society’s James Alexander Gamble Rose Fragrance Award.
To win this prestigious award, a nominee must not only be fragrant, it must also possess a number of other attributes, including vigor, pest- and disease-resistance, form, substance, color, and extreme popularity for more than five years. These qualities, of course, make any rose wonderful, which is why all the Gamble Award winners, even though they have a little age on ’em, should still be readily available at your local garden center.
The following list includes all the roses ever to have won the prestigious Gamble Fragrance Award:
1961: ‘Crimson Glory’, red hybrid tea
1962: ‘Tiffany’, pink and yellow blend hybrid tea
1965: ‘Chrysler Imperial’, red hybrid tea
1966: ‘Sutter’s Gold’, orange-yellow hybrid tea
1968: ‘Granada’, red multicolored hybrid tea
1970: ‘Fragrant Cloud’, orange-red hybrid tea
1974: ‘Papa Meilland’, red hybrid tea
1979: ‘Sunsprite’, yellow floribunda
1986: ‘Double Delight’, red and white bicolored hybrid tea
1997: ‘Fragrant Hour’, orange-pink hybrid tea
2001: ‘Angel Face’, lavender floribunda
2002: ‘Secret’, pink and creamy yellow hybrid tea
2003: ‘Mister Lincoln’, red hybrid tea
2005: ‘Sheila's Perfume’, creamy-yellow and pink floribunda
2007: ‘Fragrant Plum’, lavender hybrid tea
2008: ‘Sweet Chariot’, pink-purple miniature
You may have noticed that most of these roses are hybrid teas. Many hybrid teas don’t have strong fragrance. But isn’t it also interesting that some of the most fragrant roses are hybrid teas? What a wacky world.
Some favorite fragrant old garden roses are the following:
‘Alfred de Dalmas’: Light pink moss
‘Ispahan’: Medium pink damask
‘Mme. Hardy’: White damask
Rosa gallica officinalis: Light crimson gallica
‘Sombreuil’: White tea
But don’t for one moment believe that a whole bunch of newer roses aren’t fragrant and great plants, too. The following varieties are readily available and wonderfully fragrant:
‘Melody ParfumŽe’: Plum grandiflora
‘Fragrant Plum’: Mauve grandiflora
‘Scentimental’: Red-and-white-striped floribunda
‘Scentsational’: Pink and mauve miniature
‘Secret’: Pink and white hybrid tea