Weather and rose fragrance intensity

Rose fragrances are one of the most discussed topics between rose lovers. The one says his Princesse Charlène de Monaco smells divine and strong but the other one says she's almost scentless in his garden. Both are right as rose fragrance needs specific climactic conditions to be at its strongest. Also the moment of the day is important. Let me explain: From my 33 years of rose growing experience I've learned that most fragrant roses need a specific weather type and a specific time of day to give their very best scent. You might say come-on Dirk if it's blue skies and warm the roses smell their best... No? Well.. no..

To smell the fragrance at its best we need a rather high humidity, rather high night temperature and only weak or no wind. Between 9.00 and 11.00 o'clock in the morning is the best time to smell the roses. Above average humidity and rather high night temperatures are the perfect triggers for the petals to produce a lot of fragrance. At the base of the inside petals miniscule perfume droplets are formed each morning at dew point. High humidity combined with rather high dawn temperatures enable us to detect the rose fragrance at its strongest. But there's another player that can ruin our fragrance party: Wind 🍃. If there's a strong wind it can make the perfume droplets evaporate rather fast especially a dry wind. In Europe we have dry winds coming from the Nord east, east and southeast. These winds have a dry out effect on the soil but also on the perfume droplets our roses produce. So in late spring and in summer we can have blue skies in the morning but if there's low humidity and a dry wind you won't have the best conditions to smell the roses. If humidity is above average and there's a weak or no wind and the sun doesn't have it's full strengt yet THEN you have the most chance of smelling your roses at their best.

The past week we had blue sunny skies but with low humidity caused by high pressure and a rather strong easterly wind and my roses almost didn't smell during the day, not even the most fragrant of roses. Yes in the morning between 9 and 11 I smelled their fragrance but not their full potential. That's why roses like Jude the obscure and Peter Paul Rubens nearly always smell good during the day. Their flowers are cupped shape, almost globular rounded blooms with a bit of an opening. This shape prevents the perfume droplets from evaporating so when we stick our noses inside of these cups we can easily detect their fragrance.

So don't despair if you can't detect a strong fragrance from your beloved roses, probably the circumstances aren't that good for them to perform at their best. You will have plenty of days when the circumstances are good or even perfect to smell their fragrance. But always remember that between 9 and 11 in the morning its the best time to smell.

Happy smelling! 

Peter Paul Rubens has the perfect cupped Ball shape blooms to contain their fragrance and prevent the perfume droplets from evaporating