I am always in a search for good 'nose' roses. Blue roses are sometimes a good place to look. Here's a list of 'blue' roses gleaned from an online discussion. Opinions?


Silver Roses
Sterling Silver - Scent is glorious. disease prone.
Stainless Steel - More Vigorous, less scent.
Neptune - Excellent
Fragrant Plum - Excellent
Blue for You - Best scent
Royal Amethyst - Pretty Good
Lagerfeld - Sharp scent. Mixed bag
Angel Face
Sweetness
Vol de Nuit
Shocking Blue

Silver Star (Kordes) NoScent
Silver Star (Star Roses) Even Less Scent
Gray Pearls - Gray
Blue Moon - NF
Blue Nile - Weak
Silverado
Quicksilver


Purplish Roses
Heirloom
Intrigue
Purple Passion
Wild Blue Yonder
Midnight Blue
Lavender Pinoccio
Stephen's Purple
Plum Crazy
Blue Parfum
Blue River

The best blue rose I ever had was Spellcaster. Every bloom was perfect and the scent was intoxicating.

Gophers got it years ago and I've never found a replacement.

A seedling of Angel Face. No longer distributed. Seen here. Wow.

Blues I have:

Purple Heart - OK scent
Melody Parfum - HEAVENLY scent, gorgeous form
Escapade - Good scent
Babara Streisand - Good scent
Angel Face - OK scent
Blue Girl - Very good scent
Sterling Silver - Good scent
Stainless Steel - OK scent
Singin' the Blues - OK scent
Royal Amethyst - OK scent
English Perfume - HEAVENLY scent
Tardi Gris - Good scent
Poseidon - Good scent
Magenta - Very Good scent
Blue Bayou - Good scent
Orchid Masterpiece - Good scent
Silver Cloud - Poor scent
Macho Man - Good scent
Othello - HEAVENLY scent
Intrigue - Good scent
Heirloom - Good scent
Midnight Blue - Poor scent
Wild Blue Yonder - Poor scent
Outta the Blue - Very poor scent
Lavender Lassie - OK scent
Lavender Dream - OK scent
Lavender Simplicity - Good scent
Memorial Day - Good scent
Fragrant Plum - Very good scent
Paradise - NO scent
Koko Loko - OK scent
Rhapsody in Blue - OK scent
Purple Splash - OK scent
Clare de Lune - OK scent
Silver Star - OK scent
Ebb Tide - Poor scent
Nicole Carol Miller - Good scent
Voluptuous! - Very good scent (not sure if you want to put it in the "blue" category as it's a fuchsia/magenta)
Charles de Mills - Very good scent
Cardinal de Richelieu - Good scent
Cardinal Hume - OK scent (in the "violet" family, not really "blue)
Natasha Monet - Good scent
Florence Delattre - Good scent
Blue Heaven - unknown - didn't bloom
Purple Tiger - unknown - didn't bloom as I just got it
Ruby Voodoo - unknown - didn't bloom

I may have missed one or two.. I can't think right now of any more that I may have.

What a great list! Thank you, Toni.

Sounds Like I really need to look into Melody Parfume, English Perfume, Magenta, Fragrant Plum, Blue Girl, Escapade, Voluptuous, Natasha Monet, Florence Delattre, Othello, and Poseidon.

Charles de Mills is in my garden .. hoping he will endure the several bits of abuse heaped on him this summer including trimming by bambi. Babs is in there, too. Not thrilled with Memorial Day's flowers. Heirloom is in the garden, but no bloom yet.

*HIGHLY* Recommend both Melody Parfume & English Perfume. I got MP here at a local nursery and EP from RU. Magenta came from Palatine, FP came as a bodybag (!), BG is a BigBox, Escapade came from RU, Voluptuous! is a bigbox, Natasha Monet & Florence DeLattre came from RU, Othello came from a nursery, & Poseidon came from Palatine. That may help. I'm getting in Charles de Gaulle from Palatine for the 2013 year and it's supposed to be highly fragrant as well. Some that I've lost were Shocking Blue (ok scent), Lagerfeld (good scent), Stephen's Big Purple (the grandfather of LOTS of blue roses, Good scent). I'm looking for another Shocking Blue again. But I'm keeping your list for the ones I need to get

Oh! I *have* Neptune! I got that this year.. Good scent... forgot...

I remember seeing Spellcaster in the J&P catalog.. was sooooo sorely tempted to buy it but I knew that J&P was sending out crappy plants. I'll have to see if anyone has it ever again.. doesn't look like it.

Oh, just got Hansa, and I know it has a good scent.

Melody Perfume is one of the several surviving modern roses that I have here. It blooms very well but loses most of its leaves to black spot a couple of times every year. I have not noticed great scent from most of the "blue" roses that I have had, but the purplish ones nearly all are better than average for fragrance. Does anyone know why?

PPal - Huh.. I wonder that! Almost 100% of my smelly roses are in the blue family - and I think that's because BlueGirl or Stephen's Big Purple happens to be in the lineage. Very odd indeed. But at the same time, maybe it's your nose? Sonya is supposed to be a wonderful smelling rose.. I hate it with a passion because it smells like hot black pepper to me. The smell actually sticks to my fingers if I brush / cut it!

Toni, I don't think you're old enough to have seen Spellcaster in the J&P catalog. It came out about 20 years ago and disappeared from commerce shortly afterward. My unsuccessful hunt for a replacement began about 15 years ago.

I know I've seen it. I remember the name .. this was a few years ago, but I do remember.. or was it Spellbound? *sigh* sucks getting old...

Some of those listed above look more pink to me. I have McCartney rose in my purple bed and it has a wonderful scent. I'll go look once it's daylight-I'm sure I have a few more. For me, the purple (or blue) roses are most heavily scented and also most tender.

Okay, okay, I know this is an old thread.
But....I was looking for any discussion on the rose 'Blue Moon'.
I bought it and 'Blue Girl' this week, and I found these comments on HelpMeFind:

'"Blue Moon' is the registered name of the mauve Tantau Hybrid Tea which is sometimes improperly sold under the name of 'Blue Girl.'

Another rose known as BLUE GIRL is a Kordes rose registered under the name 'Cologne Carnival, according to Modern Roses 12.

According to HMF user The Old Rosarian, the Tantau rose 'Blue Moon' should have strong fragrance but is less "blue." The Kordes rose should have less fragrance, is blackspot susceptible but is a bluer shade of mauve. "

The plan is to plant these next to one another in my lavender and white area. Steve Singer sold me 'Once In a Blue Moon', and it will be in there too, once it gets big enough. Is Blue Moon really a florist rose, or does Help Me Find say every rose is hardy only to zone 7 unless someone posts differently?
I guess I'm asking if I even have a snowball's chance with this rose.
The picture sure is pretty.

Blue Moon is a pretty rose, I agree. I bought one about seven years ago from Amity. It has been struggling along for all of these years, and it's still alive, but I wouldn't call it a thriving rose. It produces two or three blooms a year and is only about 10 inches tall (after 7 years in the ground!). It's one of the first candidates for removal from my garden if I need the space for another plant.

Mine is an own-root rose, and I'm sure a grafted one would do better, but it's definitely a hybrid tea that needs to be grown in zone 7 or higher. HelpMeFind's default zone is 6, so if it says a rose is hardy only to zone 7, you usually can believe it.

Rose (Rosa 'Blue Moon')

Koelner Karneval (Blue Girl) is hardier and will survive without winter protection in zones 6 and higher. This isn't the HMF default zone 6; it's actual information provided by growers. I don't know how this rose does on its own roots. The only one I have is grafted, and it's about 4 feet tall.

Rose (Rosa 'Koelner Karneval')

Zulu - sorry, but I disagree about pushing zones. Most if my roses are grafted hybrid teas and about half say zone 7. And they come back for me surprisingly year after year. One in particular, my first BlueGirl, survived its first 2 years with no mulch protection and stayed mostly green all the way up the canes. In fact, half of the blue roses I wrote on my list I wouldn't really classify them as protected as they usually have less than 4" of mulch on them by the time winter's done. And they're in a raised bed, so they don't get a lot of thermo protection either. But my hardiest rose has got to be Summer Sunshine or Gemini, both of which have NO mulch protection and are in rock beds! It can be done easily. My yard's proof of that.

How tall and wide are your Summer Sunshine (which is a zone 6 rose, by the way) and Gemini rose bushes? You've said many times that your roses don't grow to the expected average height and width. And you say Blue Girl "stayed mostly green all the way up the canes"? That's a pretty good sign that it wasn't hardy in your zone. It should have stayed all green all the way up the canes.

When we talk about the winter hardiness of roses, we mean the lowest zone in which the rose will grow to its full potential with no protection (not even an inch of mulch) in winter.

Toni is obviously willing to go the extra mile for her roses and is able to "push the zone". Most of us are not willing to put out that much effort. It is for us that the zones of hardiness are calculated.

On another subject, I really appreciate it when people include a link to the database when they mention a rose as Zuzu usually does, thanks!

Summer Sunshine gets to be about 2' tall. Gemini is almost 3' tall. BlueGirl has gotten over 4.5' tall. My largest roses, though, as far as height that are not climbers is either Sheila's Perfume or Melodee Parfume (sp?). Both of those are almost as tall as me, so just a breath under 6'. And that's with them being trimmed to practically the dirt every spring.

Only my shrub roses keep green canes through the winter.
ALL the HTs have dieback to about 8". Some charts call us zone 7, some say zone 6. With the exception of this past winter, we've had zone 7 weather the last 10 years.
I did mulch this winter, thank goodness, or I wouldn't have a single budded HT left.
The roses at our local botanical garden are sheltered by large trees and stone walls, and with that protection, and mulch, they keep 2 or 3 feet of green cane. Many times, the cane looks green all the way out, but it has black splotches all along, so it has to be cut back.
I think the west coast is the only place where roses truly grow the way they are supposed to. They get tall along the gulf coast, but they are riddled with insects and diseases unless sprayed there. Same story on the east coast, but they don't get as big with a shorter growing season.
My garden design is based on color. I plant blue/lavender and white roses in one area. I've had to replace more roses in that bed than in any other. I am trying to figure out if it is the soil in that area, the exposure, my watering, or the choice of rose.
This year, I'm planting in better soil, and planting deeper. I'm also using Mill's Magic. I'm crossing fingers hoping we don't get another killer heat wave and extended drought this summer so the new ones get a decent start.

Cindy I agree about the disease problems on the Gulf coast so I grow only shrubs and old garden roses which are survivors. I don't want to be a slave to my roses!

Cindi - If we even get a start! Last night was supposed to snow .. again... luckily it didn't, but going from 70 to snow is driving my poor roses insane! Almost all of my minis have new growth ( ) and I'm planning on pruning Sunday.