WATSONVILLE–Walking through a rose garden, it can be hard to resist bending down to take a whiff of at least one flower. The scent is familiar, easily recognizable, and loved by just about everyone. There’s a reason why the rose scent is consistently used in products such as soaps and potpourri.
But for a while, that classic fragrance had begun disappearing from roses.
“People started trying to grow a rose that would last longer,” said Paul Furman of Watsonville’s California Pajarosa Floral. “It pretty much bred out all the fragrance — that smell your grandparents knew. Growers realized it wasn’t worth it. People wanted that scent.”
California Pajarosa Floral has been growing flowers on their Watsonville property, settled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, since 1979. They are now the last remaining rose grower in the Pajaro Valley and one of the very small amount left in the country.
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