The sweet scent of old-fashioned roses is one of my favourites. In winter, when rose bushes are bare, I could feel deprived. But at my front door I have growing a little shrub with bright green leaves that always look healthy, and pretty but small pink flowers. The stems, and to a lesser extent the leaves, are covered by soft hairs - very discreet, but they pack a punch. Apparently glands within the hairs are the source of a richly beautiful rose perfume. The flowers, even though they look somehow as if they should be the scent-bearers, actually lack perfume. So even if there are no flowers I can pick a leaf and be transported by the rose scent. Even more wonderful - this is an incredibly easy plant to care for. It is easy to grow from cuttings, and despite moves and neglect this plant is the offspring of one I first got decades ago - tolerant of my haphazard care, a treasured old friend.
The small pink flowers and soft green leaves of my rose-scented pelargonium, called 'Attar of Roses', probably a form of Pelargonium capitatum.