I love roses. Love them! When I was younger, I thought all I wanted was a rose garden with nothing else. Back then I had no idea that there were different kinds of roses, either. I figured a rose was a rose was a rose.

I think, like most people, I fell in love with the hybrid tea rose look. The elegant beautiful bloom, the perfect form, fabulous colors and deep green foliage. I had absolutely no idea of what it took to grow tea roses to look like that.  Then when I actually had space for gardens and was looking at roses, I read about spraying for this bug, mold, mildew, winter protection and I thought “I just want roses”!  Turns out there are many different kinds of roses and even for those gardeners that want a lower maintenance rose, there is a solution.

I have a criteria that I keep in mind when selecting a rose bush. First, it has to be hardy – preferable past zone 5, but I do buy those that only go down to 5. Second, it has to be a rebloomer. Third, it has to have fragrance. I don’t want a rose that has had all the scent bred out of it for the sake of the blooms. Lastly, it has to be disease resistant. I’m not wanting to spend so much time on one particular plant. I want my regular maintenance to take care of pretty much everything.

Sounds picky, doesn’t it? Well, it is – but that doesn’t mean I don’t have choices!  Floribundas are something that have worked well for me. Floribundas are a cross between hybrid tea and polyantha roses. The name literally means many flowers.  This was the first floribunda I got, called Scentimental:

Floribundas usually have more of a cup shaped flower rather than the tea rose shape. It has prolific blooms, too:

The only issue I had with this one was some black spot after we had a really hot and humid period. One thing I will do for care is to spray some baking soda/water mixture on it to help control that, but there was never any mildew problem with this rose.

It also was the home of a little crab spider one year, which was cute.

Note I did not stick my finger in there LOL!

The Scentimental is a cross between Peppermint Twist and Playboy (neither of which I have seen, by the way). It is very fragrant, too. On a warm day, the smell will waft pretty far when it’s in full bloom. It grows to about 3-1/2 feet tall, which is very manageable even in a small garden. I was sad to leave that rose behind when we moved and will be looking to replace it.