I came across mentions that “moss” on the roses gives off smell and that the smell is variable from variety to variety. Furthermore, the moss remains on hips and can affect flavor of fruits.
Anyone able to comment aromatics of the moss?
Each of the ones I have smelled (only a few) have had the smell that is kind of like Pine. I like it, but they left some stickiness on my fingers.
I have recently purchased two Moss roses to work with. I will be curious to hear what others have found also. I will try to let you know when they bloom if they have any other fragrance.
Duane
There are moss scents which vary from “fruity” like Juicy Fruit Gum, to lemon, pine, spruce, many “evergreen” types. If you count the texture on Fedtschenkoana’s ovaries as “moss”, that even smells like Nobel Fir with hardwood smoke. 'Fedtschenkoana' Rose Photo Ralph Moore raised mosses with strong Foetida influence whose moss literally smelled like the growth and flowering parts of Foetida, which is very much Juicy Fruit Gum.
I agree with you, Srdjan. This is such an interesting part of rose culture. While I do not have any moss roses at this time, I have always enjoyed the scents of the mossing on these varieties. On a related subject, one of the most pleasant scents I know comes from the sap and buds of the polyantha Cecile Brunner when I cut them for the house or trim the plant. To me is smells like a floral version of black pepper. It is very evocative and reminds me why I became so interested in roses years ago. Brian.
Minutifolia, you should get up close and personal with Mutabilis. It’s sepals, ovaries and new growth tips have that sweet, peppery scent so many of the Chinas express. MANY Old European Garden Rose types have marvelous scents. There is a tremendous found rose here in California that MUST have been something well known, but whose name is lost. Grandmother’s Hat and her color sports/reversions Larry Daniels and Tina Marie have a wonderful sweet cedar scent to the same parts, as well as heavily scented flowers. Her green plant part scents are very strong and extremely long-lasting. After pruning the plant, it sticks to my hands through many washings!
The “not hardy” mosses l grow have a moss resin fragrance reminiscent of the nose one gets from a fine vintage of a young Retsina with one’s mousaka … enjoy both …
Do you know names of those varieties? Any of them standing out in regards to the smell?
There are few Cecile Brunner polyanthas Rose Search
Do you know exactly which one you grow?
"Ralph Moore raised mosses with strong Foetida influence whose moss literally smelled like the growth and flowering parts of Foetida, which is very much Juicy Fruit Gum.
Do you know names of those varieties? Any of them standing out in regards to the smell?"
Unfortunately, none were named and released as they weren’t really “garden worthy” in his opinion. They likely went to TAMU with the rest of his material. He also raised Rugosa - moss hybrids which were oddly interesting. Rugosa mosses stink. The mossing has a strong, bitter stench.
Srdjan, as far as I can determine, all of the Cecile Brunners are sports of the original, all with the same scented foliage/sap. The CB I grew was rustled as a cutting from an old scrappy plant languishing in an abandoned yard in Claremont, California near Los Angeles when I lived there 35 years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if the plant was surviving from the period of its original introduction and popularity around the turn of the last century. It is hard to describe how much joy that obliging little bush brought into my life.
Kim, thank you for your kind recommendations. I always read your forum entries with interest. Grandmother’s Hat, which I first learned about here, then at HelpMeFind and other places, is the rose I most look forward to growing when we retire and can move back to California. I had no idea it had scented foliage and other parts. Of cedar, no less! Mutabilis, along with a slew of other beautiful roses, will be in the garden I am planning already. Conditions where we live now are not kind to roses; humidity, long cold winters, cruel late freezes, high water table, nasty Japanese beetles, and hordes of critters determined to devour them. My first crop of seedlings [following the directions I learned from you here at the Forum] are spending their first winter under lights in my basement. They are the result of the open pollinated hips I gathered when I pruned my elderly aunt’s and mother’s roses in San Diego last year. I’m hoping to get my germination skills up to speed for when I can join you all to raise my own crosses. Brian.
How marvelous, Brian! Keep that Cecile. She already has provenance and is well worth spreading around once you’re back where you can more easily enjoy doing it. I hope when you return it will be somewhere without Chilli Thrips so you won’t have them to deal with. Yes sir! Grandmother’s Hat (Larry Daniels and Tina Marie) have some of the neatest plant scents around. Congratulations on the first batch of seedlings! It’s so much nicer when you already have an idea of how to grow the buggers before you actually generate seeds. You can imagine the disappointment of actually making them, only to not be able to raise them. It only gets better from here!