I’m looking for info on the genetics of fragrance–how many parents/grandparents it needs, how often it mutates–can a non-fragrant rose sport of fragrant version? What do we know and what is guess? Books, articles, or just simple answers would all be helpful.
Thank you.
Fragrance is a a random thing…
I have a really nice seedling of Sutter’s Gold X Compassion… it has a great hybrid tea form. Blooms one per stem. Seems to have the vigor of Compassion. The color is Yellow shot with orange with tinges of white.
But it has ZERO fragrance.
And yet, both parents are powerfully fragrant.
And there are people who cross scentless roses and got very strong scented seedlings.
I’ve kept the seedling because it has meet many of my goals, and it isn’t that terrible of a rose… I’ve grown fond of it, and I plan to cross it with other fragrant climbing roses. I’m thinking, perhaps, an infusion of America will bring back some of its fragrance and hopefully maintain the yellowish coloring.
I smelled the two LE and EG today. I compared newly opened blooms this morning. They both smell light of sweet fruit. However, LE was decidedly more fragrant than EG.