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fragrant mini's???

fragrant minis

Note that some minis can grow to 3' tall (or larger) so take that into consideration is size is an issue.

Cafe Ole is my very favorite for perfume!

The vast majority of minis have no fragrance, or virtually none,anyway. And some that are described as fragrant aren't, to my mediocre nose, at least. But there are a handful that are definitely fragrant. Some of these, however, grow 3 feet tall and wide, so...just how big is your patio?

Some websites to check out that list fragrant minis are:
Nor'East Miniatures
John's Miniature Roses
The Uncommon Rose
Sequoia Nursery

Here are the ones I either have or have heard about.
One's I've grown:
Scentsational--soft lavender and pink blend, VERY fragrant and a good bloomer. but the plant is quite spreading, not very bushy.

Overnight Scentsation-- almost as fragrant as Scentsational, but a lot bushier, with loads of blooms that have a lot of petals and are medium to dark pink, depending on the weather. (I wish I liked pink better, because this is a great rose!)

Moonlight Scentsation--white with just a hint of lavender, quite fragrant but a loosely formed semi-double bloom that doesn't appeal to my "hybrid-tea-biased" sensibilities.

Sweet Arlene-- a pale silver/lavender floribunda-like bloom that is reported very fragrant, healthy, and prolific. Actually, I only bought mine in November, so I haven't seen it bloom yet, but looks promising. Read the Helpmefind.roses website listing for it, under comments. It's what sold me on it. It's from Nor-east.

Ones I don't have:
Sweet Chariot-- deep mauve, pom-pom style blooms that are intensely fragrant, on a cold-hardy, disease-resistant plant. Supposed to be one of the best fragrant roses.

Red Scentsation--I've ordered this, it's supposed to arrive from Uncommon Rose in a couple days. Reportedly intensely fragrant, prolific, and deep red color. My fingers are crossed.

Seattle Scentsation--some folks I know have this one, not the most prolific for them, but who knows, may be our climate or their growing conditions. Others report it performs well. A very interesting color combination of changing mauve-pink with straw-yellow petal backs. I like it. Kind of like Incognito with fragrance, but a bit more pink than lavender.

Double Gold--this yellow and apricot blend should be a great choice if your space is very limited. Large blooms (to 3 in) on a small plant. Supposedly very fragrant, too.

Trickster-- a red mini-flora with white overlay on the backs of the petals, available at Nor'East and John's Miniature Roses

Tidewater--near-white mini-flora with fragrance from John's Miniature Roses

Apricot Twist--somewhat fragrant, available from multiple sources.

Thanks, you all have been very helpful. My patio is a very very small affair. Five feet by seven feet...and already populated with gallon pots of bulbs, strawberries, ivies, herbs, and various flowering perennials.

I'm growing 3 miniature roses in 12oz pots inside. They were sold three to a pot in a garden center. And after Valentine's Day I separated them into three pots, and pruned the top to match the root ball size. I figure I have some time before they get too big for their current pots.

Mike, Double Gold looks delightful~ Thank you~

All our mini stinkers get too large for your patio. They may stay smaller in pots. They are in the ground here.

Sweet Chariot - very fragrant, #2 here.
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was 3 feet tall x 5 feet wide at the end of last year.

Sweet Arlene - very fragrant, #1 here
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end of year 2 she was 2+ feet tall x 3 feet wide
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I need to upload a better bush pic but that gives you an idea. Sweet Arlene is the miniflora in the foreground with the larger blooms. The red beside SA is
Love ya Dad
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LyD was a big surprise. He came in #3 in my fragrance contest. LyD got the same size as SA.
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If you look in the lower left corner of that Sweet Arlene bush pic you will see a bit of #4 in the competition.
X-Rated was another surprise
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didn't expect such strong fragrance from her. She got 2 feet tall and over 3 feet wide by the end of her 2nd year. XR is supposed to get taller once established.

Mike, could you let us/me know how Sweet Arlene does for you once she gets settled in?

Mike_in_new-orleans, I have all the four fragrant mini's that you grow, plus Seattle Scentsation. The Seattle Scentsation I have produces a lot of flowers and the flowering habit is somewhat like its parent New Zealand, that is, a lot of flower side buds on the same main stem. I have to disbud a lot of them sometimes. I agree with you that the new Moonlight Scentsation is very fragrant. I had two buds that remained on the plant over winter for at least a month. When they finally opened, I could not help but notice their fragrance.

I almost forget to mention. My fragrant mini's are all grown in containers. I think the original Scentsation is quite suitable for container growing. The plant is about 2 feet tall as most and may be 1 and half feet wide.
I had Sweet Chariot once but SP'ed it because I could not smell much fragrance from it. I had Red Scentsation but SP'ed that too. It is fragrant but not as fragrant as Scentsational and the plant does not seem to be very strong.

Diggerndeb, your flowers are beautiful. What are the little white flowers you have planted with your roses? I loved X-Rated, especially. I wonder if any of those would grow in the Denver area. Enjoyed your pics.

Marlene

Hey Digger! My Sweet Arlene is filling in quite nicely now, she'll be a month old on the 5th. First rose was too heavy and I deadheaded it back well. She's working on a foot tall now and about 8" wide:) She likes it here in central CA. I did get some very nice blooms off of Irresistible though:) Ultimate Pleasure's fragrance also is, wow too!

Is it spring yet in Montana?? I've been gone, I've missed seeing your pics! Beautiful.... I just have to find room for a Sweet Chariot!

Thanks Marlene :) the white groundcover is sweet alyssum. I have a friend in Ft. Collins that grows X-Rated. Let me double check with him about how it does for him.

Hey Leslie :)
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that was our yard yesterday afternoon. We got 4 - 5 more inches of the white stuff since then. Yeah, it is springtime in Montana, LOL. X-Rated is the one partially in the pic at the far left. Looks a little different....
Great to hear they are doing well for you. Sue did guide you to the best minis I know of. Just don't tell her I admitted that.

Oh wow! We got snow on Tues up in the high desert in NV where we were, they said the storm went on to Utah and I guess I wasn't paying attention, Montana!! Well Deb isn't seeing any new growth on any of the roses right now... Yep, this year maybe right up to June, weird weather. I'm looking forward to this year's photos of your roses from you and Deb:) That's a very cold looking winter's day, I'll come back and look again when I'll all sweaty from transplanting roses in the heat:). Hard to believe when I've got the sun shining and it's 70 something and the roses all have buds. Makes me feel bad, but not bad enough to go back and live in zone 7 again and have a 3 month growing season. Sorry:) My Sunshine is blooming too. Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with the 6 minis Sue helped me pick out, nope won't tell her. She's still laughing over my Rosa Banksia Lutea planted in the corner of the yard:)

Penguu- I have a bloom I picked off Buttermint yesterday that has a nice fragrance. That's a medium yellow on a mini that gets to be 14 -18" tall. It's a good repeating blooming mini rose.

It never got very cold, 25°F was the coldest. Temperature got to 50° the next day and almost all the snow melted. The roses look like they were growing under the snow. All the roses have new growth now even the late starters. It is way too early for all this stuff. Looks like the wet snow didn't break too much new growth off.

Also wanted to mention Peach Delight. It's a great little peach colored miniflora that is moderately fragrant. To my nose, as fragrant as x-rated. The flowers are about the same size, too. I really like the true peachy color.

I looove x-rated and have 2 of them for the garden next year. Thanks for the tantalizing photos, Digger. Grown in the sunroom, it stays pure white with just the tiniest blush of pink around the margins. It's been very floriferous through the winter season.

Cheers,
Michelle

Sue told me for years how good
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was. I was put off by the name. Sue explained she couldn't come up with a better name that started with x. Dee and Sue wanted to have a Bennett mini for every letter of the alphabet. I should have listened to her years ago and got XR. I don't like the look of old blooms just like I don't like old Gemini blooms. With all those blooms I can deadhead the week old ones and still have plenty left to smell the place up. Since I mentioned the alphabet...
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was the last Dee Bennett mini to fill in all the letters. (almost positive UP was the last one..) I always tease Sue about the name. Again, she had to register the name quickly and U is a tough one. It took a few years to get established but is a bloom machine now. Fragrance isn't as strong as the stinkers but is pretty good.

Ooops, I just intended to mention Sue had told me XR would stay white without sun exposure... ohhh well. Please let us know how XR does for you. It came through its 2nd winter very well. Lots of new growth on it right now.

Penguu- Here's Digger at his best enabling:) Ultimate Pleasure is not only beautiful but it's got a wonderful fragrance! However, this mini will be big it'll be 3'x3' but what a rose:) I like mauves better then pink, but the crystal clear pink blend of this with a darker reverse just grabbed me.

Digger how funny that the roses seem to be growing under the snow. I thought the snow just had insulating qualities. That's quite a temp spread too, 25 to 50. I do like X-Rated too, I love the blends. No, I think we're in for another really strange weather year. We've been yo-yo-ing from 60's to 80's. Meantime my roses are busting out with buds and aphids. I didn't have hardly any last year. I'm using your washing off method, not discouraging them very well. I hope to have another pic to share soon:) Hope Deb is doing well too, she getting spring fever yet??

Michelle, I'll have to look up Peach Delight, that sounds pretty nice.

Hi Leslie, I poked my head outside and saw that Peach Delight has a couple of decent blooms on it. It's outside hardening off while the weather is above freezing.

This can't rival Dave's pictures, but you get the idea of the color and form... The color looks more saturated to me in real life - exactly like a perfectly ripe peach. The color holds well, and the blooms stay on the bush for a long time. I really adore this mini.

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This plant along with a few others resided on my hottest windowsill over winter and took the worst of the spider mite damage. However, it recovered well and never stopped blooming despite being severely cut back. It will be sooo much happier when it can live outdoors in the garden.

Cheers,
Michelle

PD looks great. I like the color. Have to disagree. It is as nice as my photos. It shows blooms, buds and foliage clearly. That is all I try to do with mine. I enjoy seeing other pics here more than mine. I can look at the full sized photos on my computer anytime :) It beats the heck out of anything I could photograph today too. Unless you like snow. Yeah, it is snowing again.

Oh Michelle, that is very nice:) That is a terrific color, I really like that, thanks for taking the picture and sharing that. What a beautiful rose and your photo is excellent also. I like it also when you show the plant as well as the rose. Your coldframe worked pretty well for you all winter, that's pretty nice for you to have had roses like this:) What's the red one next to it and the white? That's teasing.... I've got to get this photo software to label my photos, makes it alot easier.

Your snow Digger would have sounded pretty good to me along about 2pm today when even my eyelashes were dripping sweat from transplanting 4 roses it was so warm here:)

Thanks - the little red is Applause. Not a favorite of mine. It has no fragrance, and the unopened buds snap off the plant too easily. It seems like every time I bump it or the Ridgeback stands near it and wags her tail, I find a bud or two has fallen off! Maybe it will be a star in the garden for color. I can only hope!

Dave, your photos are among my favorites. My garden has some growing up to do before I can find the vignettes that you are so good at picturing. :-) It looks like you are very talented at growing the roses, as well as photographing them.

Cheers,
Michelle