The vagarious nature of rose fragrance.

I thought I'd make a new topic for this as there has been a bit of discussion lately about what varieties have fragrance and what haven't.

Sometimes I wonder if there is a genetic "sniffer" on/off switch with some of the rose scents. (An on/off switch in us.) Kind of like how some people can smell boronia and others, due to genetics, can't. (I'm one that can't.)

For instance, some of the roses marketed as "having a strong perfume" - and, indeed, this being backed up by forumites - and yet I'd disagree... !

Two examples that stick out for me are 'Lamarque' and 'Margaret Merrill'. Sure, they have a scent. But I certainly am not smelling an "OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS AWESOME" type which others seem to have?? And yet I'll smell my Damasks (ones like Quatre Saisons) and some HTs (like Oklahoma and Papa Meilland) and feel it is a strong scent. And then someone else sniffs the same rose and will say "hasn't got much scent, has it?" !!

Certainly there are issues such as time of day, stage of bloom, and other environmental aspects.

Do we get confused sometimes between a pleasant scent and a strong scent?

Wendy, your a "dag" one of the best I know, never met you, but I like the way you put things, is it a thing which we call "each to thier own"

The garden gurus, (Neville Passmore) said on one of his tv programmes that Mr Lincoln has a heavy scent and that his wife love the smell so much that he bought 50 bushes , so he would never be without the scent. That was my reason to buy one. I found it to be a bad grower and it did not match the perfume of my Neptune. As said above...each to their own ....

Neptune - My Mr Lincoln is amazing, strong scent and as long as it is in full sun it grows very quickly. It was overshadowed by our nectarine tree which we just cut down and all of a sudden it shot up! The scent is incredible. Maybe AutumnDamask has a point, maybe there is some trigger where they lose scent. Or perhaps mislabeled?

Is is funny. Our Comtesse de Labarthe have a sweet citris/tea scent. The lady up the back can smell them (about 40 odd of them) 100 metre away yet I hardly notice it unless I actually sniff a flower.
However, when our Sasanqua camellias are in flower I love the scent in the air that hardly anyone can detect.

I remember smelling Scentimental , at the Werribee rose gardens , expecting a strong fragrance , and nothing , i smelt nothing , weird .....

Scentimental has a nice gentle scent for me Maree, but I don't believe it lives up to its name at all!

I think you are right there Rosy !!!!

That must be like tasting foods differently, i.e., where some people must have lots of chilli on everything in order to enhance the taste and others are in pain, because their mouth is on fire. Definitely, the sense of smell is very individual and rose fragrances are subjective. But I still rely on others’ reports on whether a rose has a nice/strong/good whatever fragrance vs. no fragrance at all, and would think most people are not confused about a pleasant scent and a strong scent.

That must be the Teas, Gary, with the kind of fragrance that travels and appears fuller at a distance, something I noticed with Monsieur Tiller. I just detected a definite new fragrance one day and thought it came from next door, but it was MT. Close up the fragrance was not as noticeable and also quite different.