Damask Rose 'Madame Hardy': Hardy's 1831 White Masterpiece

Introduced in 1831 by Alexandre Hardy, 'Madame Hardy' (also known as Félicité Hardy) stands as one of the finest white damask roses ever bred. This ancient class, prized for centuries for its intense fragrance and use in perfumery, reaches a pinnacle of purity and perfume in this cultivar.

Botanical Profile

The flowers are fully double, quartered, and pure white with a green button eye—a distinctive damask trait. They open from pointed buds in small clusters, each bloom 3-4 inches across. The fragrance is the quintessential damask perfume: rich, sweet, and spicy, the scent of attar of roses. The plant forms a tall, arching shrub 6-8 feet, with grey-green foliage and the characteristic bristly stems of the class. It blooms once, gloriously, in early summer. 'Madame Hardy' is a living link to the rose fields of Grasse and Kazanlik, where damasks have been cultivated for perfume for centuries. A rose that doesn't just smell like history—it is history.