21–30 of 39 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where I live roses grow wild and always have. They smell as good as cultivated roses.
Do you believe these "wild" roses have never cross-fertilised with cultivated varieties?
They typically line the roads where the grass is short and are referenced by settlers when they first came to the area in the 1860s
I find it extremely difficult to reliably find roses for sale that actually smell like anything at all.
I find that scents don't last too long, but I think this is to be expected. On my property most of the scent from roses is produced in the first week's bloom before dissipating.
I find it extremely difficult to reliably find roses for sale that actually smell like anything at all.
As a completely random aside, I was in a social gathering this week, some people were talking about roses, and I overheard: "Of course the smell has been bred out of roses."
I walked through smelling every unique type of rose flower and I was surprised to learn that the vast majority do not smell like “roses”!
A rough estimate was that half smell bad or not at all, most of the rest smell like lemons, and a few percent only have the prototypical rose smell.
Your rose smells nice because it was bred to smell nice by human breeders. All the different varieties of cultivated roses that we have today are the product of hybridizing and selective breeding (“artificial selection”) of twelve or so wild rose species; a process that has continued over hundreds if not thousands of years. While not a hard and fast rule, most plant species with strongly scented flowers usually are w…
There are many others of interest. Roses of course but also violet, lavender, lilac, lily, hyacinth, osmanthus, mimosa, marigold, chrysanthemum, chamomile, geranium, carnation. You might count iris, but moreso the tuber than the flower.
This is all about chemistry and genetics. But nothing on 'why roses smell nice'. It's really a puzzle. Why on earth should Homo Sapiens consider a rose's smell to be 'nice'? Dogs like roses' smell about the same as shit. They don't give a damn. Further, why are rainbows pretty? Why is a waterfall inspiring? And on and on. You have to have some kind of special model to explain this, I think. Something beyond simple re…
I've seen the argument before that humans find flowers pretty because they indicate fertile land, where there are flowers there will be animals, etc. Impossible to really know, I suppose.
This is all about chemistry and genetics. But nothing on 'why roses smell nice'. It's really a puzzle. Why on earth should Homo Sapiens consider a rose's smell to be 'nice'? Dogs like roses' smell about the same as shit. They don't give a damn. Further, why are rainbows pretty? Why is a waterfall inspiring? And on and on. You have to have some kind of special model to explain this, I think. Something beyond simple re…
Not all rose types smell as nice as others. There are countless types, all bred for specific characteristics over hundreds of years. If one such characteristic is pleasant smell (and why would it not be), then the answer is obvious. By and large, roses smell nice because human bred them to.
This is all about chemistry and genetics. But nothing on 'why roses smell nice'. It's really a puzzle. Why on earth should Homo Sapiens consider a rose's smell to be 'nice'? Dogs like roses' smell about the same as shit. They don't give a damn. Further, why are rainbows pretty? Why is a waterfall inspiring? And on and on. You have to have some kind of special model to explain this, I think. Something beyond simple re…