"Dan Gannon" wrote in message
om...
"Sunflower" wrote in message
...
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.

I do plan to smell them, as many as I can. I don't have to grow them,
in many cases, to do that. The reason is, within driving distance of
Portland, Oregon, there are many varieties already in gardens,
nurseries, etc. I presume that's one reason Portland is called "The
City of Roses."

Rose fragrance can change depending on which season it is, what time of day
it is, how mature a bush is, and to some extent, diet. A one time sniff
test can be misleading. Growing a rose for at least 3 years not only gives
you insight into how those variables change things, it also is a must if you
really want to hybridize roses. You need to know first hand which set hips.
Which ones don't. Which ones have better than average disease resistance.
And a host of other things

For those varieties I don't get my nose that close to, I may select
trusted sources - not just relying on hybridizers' descriptions,
obviously. If I create a list of fragrant varieties in this way, I
anticipate the error rate will be very low, perhaps zero. There may
be disputes between some people along the lines of, "I detect a
moderate fragrance," "but I detect a mild fragrance," etc., and
fragrance varies according to environmental factors, but those issues
aren't primary concerns of mine.

That's another issue with fragrance. Each and every person has a different
ability to detect scents and some folks cannot smell certain scents at all.
Some people actually *enjoy* the "myrrh" scent of many David Austin roses.
I sniff them and I gag. Plenty of people cannot smell even "light" rose
scents and need a heavy scent to be able to detect it. A highly
discriminating nose is a valuable commodity, but only one out of 300
thousand or so people are born with the ability to detect a large number of
scents. Get 10 "average" people to sniff the same rose, and you'll get 10
different descriptions of the essense and the strength of what they sniff.
It's like wine tasteing.

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.

I'm not presently a member of any rose-related organizations. I just
have a personal interest. I'm not really interested in a rose's show
potential. Maybe I'll become interested someday, who knows...

THe majority of ARS members are not interested in showing roses either.
Just the higher ups and the doers and office holders. That's the only
people they can get to do the work. Becoming a member of the ARS just puts
you in touch with a lot of information on a wide variety of roses which
allowes you to have a well rounded background--an absolute necessity in a
hybridizer. Membership in the Rose Hybridizers Association also should be a
must. The education they provide beginning hybridizers is invaluable. If
you don't understand ploidy in roses or other basic rose genetics, then you
definately need to get their little cram packed beginners booklet.

Dan