Today, the majority of our rose fragrance still comes from R. Damascena Trigintipetala, the Kazanlik rose. It is still grown extensively in Bulgaria. Worse still, you must harvest it in the short summer flowering season and then only in the early morning before the heat of the sun has diminished the fragrance. The writer and family had an enjoyable summer in 1995 producing rose water and a little oil from a number of fragrant roses. We were surprised to find that some notably fragrant roses produced very inferior rosewater and oil.
Damasks are tallish shrubs with hooked thorns and wonderful foliage.
Once you have seen Damask foliage in the spring, you will understand the beauty of the old rose and the subtlety of its foliage. Fragrance is undoubtedly a personal thing. The Damask fragrance is the most sought after and most identified with the rose. David Austin sees Damasks as the chief source of the 'Old Rose' fragrance in the modern rose, few of which approach the subtlety and complexity of the Damask fragrance. We see damask fragrance as being quintessentially 'old rose', reminiscent of grandmothers, of hand cream and nostalgia.