This is my favourite rose in our garden; it’s called Aicha (Petersen, 1962). There’s a lovely English single one that’s similar, called Mermaid, but it’s not hardy enough for Norway. Here’s Aicha:
It has just started to bloom and it lasts about three weeks.
This is why I like it. Firstly, its situation; it draws you round the corner of the house where you’re able to see the meadow and the hillside,
Secondly, I love the way it fades from dark yellow to pale creamy white. Thirdly, I like bees and it attracts dozens at a time,
Fourth, I like the way it’s big flowers are only slightly ‘double’, rose-gardener parlance for multi-layered petals, and flat. Fifth, it has a gorgeous scent*.
I’ve never had much success with foxgloves before; so I didn’t know that just when you think they’re over, the blooms begin again:
*My daughter said yesterday she doesn’t like the word ‘scent’ and prefers to say ‘smell’. My mother won’t say a bottle of ‘perfume’ and will only call it ‘scent’. I say all three words, but I wonder if this is a hereditary thing that’s skipped a generation?
A Bad Guide 
To me, perfume is literally the manufactured stuff; flowers don’t need it. People selling perfume sometimes call it “scent” or “fragrance”. I wonder what they call it back at the ol’ factory.
P.S. What a beautiful place!
P.P.S. I’m tgg, new visitor to languagehat. Having a ball there, but need to rein in my new tendency to get lost in the internet when I should be working.
Thanks, and welcome, Tom! Please come again. I’d been meaning to say that I’ve been enjoying your LH comments. Everybody there needs to rein in their tendency and I warn you it’s a roach motel, some of us first checked in there years ago, but we’re very happy there.
I like “niff”.
Is it just me, or are many, many modern roses almost without scent? I am no gardener, and roses are not my favourire flower anyway, except for the wonderful and unique texture to the aroma of the old standards I remember from my grandparents garden. I remember being able to almost feel the scent, like something literaly tangible. Is this just nostalgitis or have modern roses been bred for other characteristics and lost some of that which made them smell as sweet?
No, it’s just you, Stu.
Actually I don’t like unsmelly roses, either, much. It must be caused by the disappointment.
That seems a bit harsh, dearie. But then see the next post.
No, it’s true. Roses now are bred for size and color. So there are some spectacular hybrid teas like the Peace rose that has a very light smell, and then there is something like the Chicago Peace, one of its showy offspring, which iirc has no smell at all. It was the damask roses that were known for their fragrance.
There are some roses also bred for winter hardiness. The rugosas come to mind.
Those are certainly spectacular roses, especially with being on a bush like that. They look like they don’t need any special kind of winter protection. We have to cover our HT roses in the winter if we want them to survive.
We have lots of wild rugosas and roses that are grafted on to rugosa stems for reasons of hardiness.
Sorry, Megkoronáz, I was a bit late in answering your comment, so for safety’s sake I repost it here as well.
Yes, I have thought that they are that race, because their fur is beautiful. A Russian friend has made thread from the fur of their dog, and his sister has knit beautiful socks of it, and we also considered to do so with the fur of our dogs, but it is so huge work that we renounced of it with sorrow.
The Aicha rose is wonderful. It is very similar to Golden Wing, which is one of my favorites. We have no problem with the import of roses, although before joining the European Union we had also smuggled in a lot of them. That’s why I know that each country regulates in a different way the import of plants. Are you sure that you cannot import roses from Germany for example? We bought most of our Canadian roses there, in a nursery called Schultheis: http://www.rosenhof-schultheis.de They, as it fits to a decent German company, have good Eastern connections, thus they also sell very good – absolutely frost-resistant – Latvian roses.
Kata