come up roses

1.  Turn out extremely well, as in I had my doubts about this project, but now it's coming up roses. [Slang; c. 1960]
2.  come up smelling like roses. Emerge untarnished from a difficult situation, have no stain on one's character, as in He was suspended for a month but still came up smelling like roses. Eric Partridge believed this usage originally was fall into shit and come up smelling like roses, but the vulgar initial phrase is now generally omitted. [Slang; first half of 1900s]