Hunting for scented roses

It was surprising to me, that even at Manito Park’s giant rose garden, there were very few truly scented roses. But we managed to find a few and nab some petals in a container conveniently hidden in my Kate Spade tote bag without being caught, taking them home to make another batch of rose hydrosol.

We also toured the magnificent Manito perennial gardens. So much inspiration! Starting with these amazing 6’ tall globe thistles.

When we got home I made a fresh hydrosol batch using some of our swiped rose petals, and the fragrance was definitely more recognizably rosey! Tomorrow I will load the distiller with even more petal material to see what we get. But this experiment definitely solidified my plan to hunt down a few of the most scented roses I can find to add to Steve’s rose bed this fall.