"Dan Gannon" wrote in message
om...
"Sunflower" wrote in message
...
So, you're identifying these fragrant minis through literature and
hybridizers descriptions?

I had to start somewhere. My first strategy has been to run lots of
Google searches, scouring the Internet for mentions of fragrant
miniatures. I found quite a bit that way. Since then, I've learned
of some more, by word of mouth. When the roses are in bloom locally,
I'm planning to visit the major gardens and nurseries which have
miniatures, and personally smell them. I'll also be checking out
books at the library, and probably contacting people "in the
business," to see if they know of other fragrant varieties.

How many of them do you *personally* grow and have *personal* experience
with to judge that they are fragrant?

Currently, I'm personally growing 9 varieties indoors. I'll be
growing more later. I don't think I need to personally grow all of
them, so I pick and choose among those that interest me most.

You do if you're going to describe them as fragrant. There is NO substitute
for personal experience. 9 varieties is hardly a representative sample of
the thousands of minis on the market. Second hand reportage of something as
ephemeral and individual as fragrance is misleading. Hybridizers and
marketers are notoriously optimistic in their glowing descriptive terms.
Marketing isn't fact. Nose sniffing in person is.

And, what type of standard are you using to judge the strength of that
fragrance? My standard for a HT would be Fragrant Cloud, for a
noisette,
Blush Noisette, for a polyantha Perle d'Or, etc. My standard for a
fragrant
mini would be Sweet Chariot, which although nicely scented, isn't what
I'd
call terribly strongly scented. It's also probably one of the best as
far as
BS resistance goes, but that is such a joke that you couldn't compare it
to,
say a china at all and come out looking good.

Yes, Sweet Chariot would be a good standard for a fragrant mini, as
would some others. I may just start by noting personal observations,
like: no fragrance, light fragrance, moderate fragrance, strong
fragrance. I suppose panels of rose smellers(?) could work the rest
out later. Maybe the ARS would be interested in evaluating or
re-evaluating the fragrant minis, to judge their fragrances. I'm not
yet experienced in that area.

The ARS doesn't evaluate minis. Individual growers of all kinds of roses
evaluate what they grow in RIR, and you don't have to be an ARS member to
participate. (Are you and ARS member and did you participate? And are you
a RHA member since you want to produce your own hybrids?) And the AOE, like
the AARS is a professional growers award, and doesn't have anything to do
with the public's evaluation of a mini as gardenworthy, disease resistant,
or scented. As far as the ARS folks go, the majority of office holders and
doers would be interested in a mini's show potential, which again doesn't
coincide with disease resistance or fragrance.

Dan