Smelling Like a Rose

Rose Garden, Exposition Park                                    KW

A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I found ourselves strolling through the Rose Garden of L.A.'s Exposition Park. The garden was established in 1927 with the planting of 15,000 bushes. There are more than that now, of every color and hue one imagines roses to bear. What most of them don't have, however, is a scent. It's disconcerting, really. We must have bent over dozens of them, and of those, only a couple gave off any kind of rose-like aroma. As one might expect, this is largely the result of our breeding them for color and shape. Something had to give, and it was the smell. Well, scientists have figured out how they might breed that smell back, and it has to do with a little enzyme that goes by the romantic name RhNUDX1: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-discover-why-some-roses-smell-sweeter-than-others--and-how-to-improve-the-scent-10362519.html?icn=puff-12