7 Fragrant Roses for Your Walkways
If you have to walk from your house to the garage or traipse through your yard, it might as well be pleasurable, right? To that end, here are 7 fragrant roses to plant near your walkways.
After we profile each of the 7 roses including images below, take a look at the included sections on choosing & growing roses perfect for Tacoma & western Washington – as well as how to maintain the fragrance of your new roses throughout the blooming season.
7 roses that work well next to walkways
1. Oso Easy Lemon Zest (Rosa x ‘CHEwhocan’)
2. Popcorn Drift Rose (Rosa ‘Novarospop’)
3. Ebb Tide (Rosa ‘Weksmopur’)
4. Rise Up Amberness (Rosa x ‘Chewamberness’)
5. White Knock Out (Rosa ‘Radwhite’)
6. Boscobel (Rosa ‘Auscousin’)
7. Souvenir de St. Anne’s (Rosa ‘Souvenir de St. Anne’s’)
Some roses are better suited than others for our climate here in Tacoma. Many hybrid tea roses, for instance, require more care than other landscape roses, especially the KnockOut roses. Fortunately, after decades of fragrance being bred out of roses, scent is making a comeback in all categories.
Oso Easy Lemon Zest (Rosa x ‘CHEwhocan’)
This variety is a low-maintenance rose with semi-double, lemon-yellow flowers that won’t fade in the sun. This rose has a mild, sweet fragrance and doesn’t need deadheading, though regular deadheading encourages better flower production. It thrives in full sun and is well-suited to Tacoma’s USDA Zone, 8b.
Lemon Zest is a member of Proven Winners’ Oso Easy collection and a recipient of the American Rose Society’s Award of Garden Merit. It grows to 3 feet tall and wide, serving as a small and compact shrub rose. It makes a great addition to garden walkways and will grace your garden with its sunny blooms from late spring into the fall.
Popcorn Drift Rose (Rosa ‘Novarospop’)
Popcorn is a fragrant member of the Drift collection of ground cover roses. Popcorn resembles its name, with fluffy double white flowers and buttery yellow shadings. It has a mild, pleasant fragrance and only reaches up to 18 inches tall and wide. Popcorn blooms from the spring to the fall and received the Biltmore International Rose Trials Award.
Because of its compact and spreading growth habit, Popcorn makes a great addition to garden borders. It grows well in full sun and partial shade. The low-maintenance variety requires only annual pruning to maintain its shape and encourage new growth.
Ebb Tide (Rosa ‘Weksmopur’)
This highly fragrant, clove-scented floribunda shrub rose grows up to 4 feet tall and wide. Deep purple buds unfurl into double, 3.5-inch flowers among glossy dark-green leaves. The plant’s color enriches as it continues to bloom in your Tacoma yard.
Ebb Tide has good disease resistance and grows best in full sun. This rose makes for a striking addition to garden borders and pathways, blooming from the late spring to the early summer.
Rise Up Amberness (Rosa x ‘Chewamberness’)
Proven Winners has introduced a new series of mini climbing roses, Rise Up. Fragrant Amberness grows up to 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. It is a mini climber that grows equally well as a shrub rose for borders and walkways.
Amberness’s flowers bloom all summer with amber petals around an orange center. It is low-maintenance, requiring only an early spring pruning. It grows best in full sun and does not require deadheading.
White Knock Out (Rosa ‘Radwhite’)
A member of the Knock Out family of roses, Radwhite produces pure white, single roses among dark green leaves. This rose’s leaves are almost black early in the growing season, and it blooms all summer, producing a light floral scent.
Radwhite is a versatile variety with a compact shape, reaching up to 4 feet. It tolerates some shade and resists common rose diseases like black spot and powdery mildew. White Knock Out roses are an excellent choice for Washingtonians looking to add no-fuss, classic white blooms to their garden.
Boscobel (Rosa ‘Auscousin’)
This is an English shrub rose from David Austin. Boscobel grows up to 4 feet tall and wide and produces large, double, coral-pink rosettes. It has a myrrh scent with echoes of elderberry, hawthorn, pear, and almond.
Boscobel blooms repeatedly throughout the growing season from late spring into autumn. Its upright and bushy growth habit makes it a standout specimen for garden walkways. Bascobel prefers regular deadheading to encourage continuous flowering.
Souvenir de St. Anne’s (Rosa ‘Souvenir de St. Anne’s’)
This classic and highly-regarded rose variety produces semi-double, pale pink flowers that perfume the air with rich, sweet, and fruity notes. It continuously blooms from the summer through the fall and has an upright and bushy growth habit.
The classic Souvenir de St. Anne’s rose thrives in full sun and is a popular choice for gardeners in the Evergreen State looking to add classic charm and a captivating fragrance to their landscape.
How to Select a Fragrant Rose for a Tacoma Walkway
Select roses based on color, size, bloom time, winter hardiness, and their resistance to disease and insects. Many shrub, landscape, and ground cover roses have good resistance to insects and diseases.
Pay attention to winter hardiness on the tag. Tacoma’s USDA Zone is 8b. Additionally, consider the available space along your walkway. Choose rose varieties that fit your space. Lastly, visit your local nursery or garden center. They carry rose varieties that are well-suited to the local climate (or they won’t sell) and will have knowledgeable staff to help you pick a few winners.
Tips For Growing Roses
Grow roses in full sun where they will receive at least six hours of direct sunlight per day. Avoid planting your roses close together and consider amending your soil with compost to improve drainage. Tacoma’s soil is heavy and the roses will require a well-draining environment.
Roses are also heavy feeders, so fertilize carefully. Use a specialized fertilizer, such as Espoma’s Rose-Tone. Washington State University Extension offers a growing guide with more information. Regular pruning helps maintain the shape and health of your roses, and regular watering during hot weather will improve their endurance while blooming.
How To Increase the Fragrance of Your Roses
Planting fragrant roses along a pathway is an easy way to perfume the air as you walk by and creates a delightful sensory garden. The concentration of roses growing together creates a wonderful fragrance for weeks and months on end.
Increase the fragrance of your garden roses by planting them in full sun, fertilizing them regularly, and applying mulch to their bases below the crowns. Roses emit their strongest fragrance in the late afternoon and early evening, and the overall health of your roses directly affects their fragrance production.
Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp is an award-winning garden writer, editor, and speaker. Known as a workaholic, she frequently says her eyes are too big for her yard.
She blogs at hoosiergardener.com
