Alina Perfumella is a smaller-scale garden rose from the Meilland collection. A delicate name for a variety with a delicate look and fragrance. Roses do not name themselves and – as many professionals in the floral industry know – coming up with a new name is not as easy as it seems. But for Alina Perfumella it was simple, seeing as she was named after Romanian floral designer Alina Neacsa.
Alina Neacsa is a self-made floral designer and businesswoman. She started her career in this industry as a wedding and event planner, but due to a shortage of suppliers of premium flower arrangements, she decided to make her own arrangements. She built up her network and started sourcing the most beautiful flowers from all over the world, including the (scented) garden roses from Parfum Flower Company. With a solid background in the financial world and an Economics degree, Alina knew what she was doing.
Alina: “I like to be different. And I love doing things that others believe are impossible. The moment I fell in love with garden roses, I knew that I somehow had to make them more visible to the public. You see, here in Romania, garden roses are seen as a very expensive flower with a short vase life so people’s first instinct was to avoid them. When I started my scented journey, only a few (three or four) varieties were known to Romanian florists.”
Because I love this type of rose so much, I started posting videos of them on social media. Each and every time I was invited to a TV show or an exclusive event, I brought some garden roses with me to show them to the world. The reactions were always the same: ‘OMG! What’s that scent? It’s unbelievable!’ I quickly found out that giving people the opportunity to see, smell, and experience the rose was the most powerful way to get them enthusiastic.
You know, flowers are all about creating feelings and emotions and that’s exactly what scented garden roses do. When someone smells a rose, they instantly connect the sensation with memory, for example, a childhood memory of smelling the flowers in grandma’s garden. My next step was to introduce (scented) garden roses to other florists during floristry classes. Garden roses were still new to the Romanian market, so when I did a masterclass in 2018 with more than 3,000 garden roses to work with, it was unheard of.
I spend 90% of my time on these types of roses. Through my efforts, I managed to create a bit of a garden roses ‘mania’ here in Romania. Being an ambassador came naturally to me, simply because of my love for these flowers. Gradually, (scented) garden roses became my floral ‘signature’. I am known for using them in all of my floral designs. I still show them on every TV show I’m invited to, online, and in every article. People know about ‘Alina and her garden roses’ and by now they even call me Alina Perfumella!
It’s amazing that there’s a beautiful rose in this world named after me. It’s like a dream I didn’t even dare to dream come true!“