Over a century of rose breeding has rewarded gardeners with so many gorgeous garden roses: hybrid tea, grandiflora, floribunda and shrub types. Rose breeders have concentrated on plant vigor, flower color, disease resistance, and greater numbers of flowers over the growing season. Over the years, floral fragrance has been mostly ignored.

In the past two years two new rose series have come to market with incredible fragrance along with improved disease resistance.

At Last® rose (Rosa x At Last®) is a highly fragrant, fully-petaled rose with no-spray disease-resistant landscape rose. No spraying is required to enjoy a non-stop display of large, sweetly perfumed sunset-orange blossoms from late spring through frost. Handsome, glossy foliage and a vigorous, rounded habit makes it ideal for use in the landscape or the flower garden (USDA hardiness zones 5-9). Introduced by Spring Meadow Nursery (wholesale).

Brindabella™ roses is a series of shrub roses from Australia. They exhibit a bushy habit, 3-4 feet  tall and wide and possess excellent disease resistance to black spot and powdery mildew. Their colorful blooms are doubled and highly fragrant. Blooms are produced in flushes from spring into fall, and no deadheading is required. The plants have a bushy, upright and sometimes semi-weeping habit. They reach at maturity, making them ideal for low hedges, spots at the edge of a mixed border, and containers.

Brindabella® roses are low maintenance and vigorous in a small package. They are well suited to home gardens and commercial landscapes. For beauty and fragrance Brindabella roses know few rivals. Roses are selected for their beauty, disease-resistance and vigor. Roses require 6 or more hours of direct sun per day and fertile, reasonably moist soil. They benefit from an occasional feeding during the growing season. Extra hardiness (Zones 4 – 9). Introduced by Suntory Flowers.

Six current Brindabella varieties for both home gardens and commercial landscapes are:

Dawn™ – fragrant salmon colored blooms with hints of apricot.
First Lady™ – lavender pink double flowers 
Purple Prince™ – purple double flowers
Pink Princess™ – frosted pink double flowers
Red Empress™ – crimson red to dark fuchsia double flowers
Touch of Pink™ – pale pink centers & white outer whorled doubled flowers