For me, no matter how beautiful a rose is, it has to smell really good. Here’s my Black Lady rose. I love rugosas as well for their strong scent but they are so thorny
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I found some roses on our land that were barely alive under a cover of 3 meters of brambles. They have not seen any direct sunlight for many years. No pruning, no fertilizer, no water. And look at how happy this rose is now that it is finally able to feel the sunlight again.
I also uncovered a very vigorous climbing rose. It was cut to the ground last summer, and it has grown 4 meter branches since. It has also tip rooted a lot. I dug up all of those rooted plants, and sold a lot of them in 1 gallon pots. I took hundreds of cuttings as well this spring, almost all of them are rooting and some of them are already starting to flower. This is for me the best plant for propagating and selling.
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This is Sunbelt Desmond Tutu. Heat tolerant floribunda. New to me this year so I will see how it does. Bad year so far for thrips. They are in all my rose and peony flowers.
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Washington state, zone 8b 
Yelm area
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If you have wild multiflora roses on your property, you should get rid of them as they host Rose Rosette Virus. It’s spread by microscopic mites that blow in the wind or spread by birds, bees, or on your clothes.
Read up on it. Seems to be an issue that is widespread and people regularly post pics in Rose groups on FB asking if they have the virus in their garden roses.
It is recommended to spray the multiflora with Bifenthrin if they are in leaf before you attempt to remove it. Disturbing it could release the mites from the growing tips and cause a dispersal. Dig the roots or treat stumps with Roundup to ensure no grow back after cutting down rose. Mites overwinter in cracks in bark so haul it all away.
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Forgot to mention that if you have Home Depot near you, it carries several Weeks Roses (the largest whole sale rose grower in the US). A full grown bush is only $25.
I bought a Painter series a few years ago, Maurice Utrillo, a multi-colored rose. Today, I stop by, it offers Camille Pisarro and Avant Garde from that series.
I bought a Tiamo rose, a rose bred by Kordes. It’s a Grandiflora rose, a tall rose. This will be my first red rose.
Kordes is one of very reputable rose breeder. It is a German company. Weeks roses sells Kordes roses. I like almost all Kordes roses.
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Distant drums is starting to bloom! Two starting to open. love this flower. the rest should follow over the next few days
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https://www.instagram.com/p/DEQrwofyUQN/
I saw this post of westerland and added it to my collection for hip production
I also saw this post and it has me on the hunt for windrush. I am going to keep looking and i plan to ask people in the winter to post their rose hips in my rose groups 
I think many do not grow their roses or let them produce hips anymore. Id look at old garden roses as much as possible, many of them were dual purpose hip/ rose producers
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The color of Distant Drum is either you like it or you don’t. I am on the latter camp. Of the Dr. Buck roses, I like Quietness and Prairie Sunrise.
I always want to have Westerland. It is beautiful and prolific, but I don’t have a sunny spot for a climber. If you like a thornless, fragrant “climber”, look into Zepherine Drouhin.
It has a shocking pink color and nice fragrance. Unfortunately, it blooms only once a year. I removed mine (and regret it) as I want re-bloomers and don’t have a good location for climbers.
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For me smell is my number 1 for roses, but i do really like the coppery center. I agree its a love it or hate it rose though lol.
The smell is excellent though, myrrh is my wifes favorite rose scent and its a stunner for myrrh scent.
I tend to like less petals on roses, most of the ones i grow are doubles or less.
For scents i try and do a variety, distant drums is myrrh, cinco de mayo is appley (weird scent for a rose, but fun), midnight blue is cloves and spice, golden celebration is wine and strawberry, westerland has the old rose fragrance, new dawn is sweet.
Westerland is supposed to do well in part shade, i have it getting morning sun but no other sun and at least its putting on growth. we’ll see its blooming lol
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Your best source for that info is going to be your local American Rose Society. Many of them have a website with a list of roses that do well in your area. When we lived in the PNW we were told not to plant any roses with more than 25 petals because the moisture will ball them up and then mold. At one time we had 600 rose bushes there which my husband used as cutting stock for our mailorder rose plant nursery. It was fun (and a lot of work) for the 10 years it lasted, until the drop in 2008 of expendable income for near retirees. We recently did a major pivot and retired in Utah and still manage to grow a handful or two of different varieties. No danger of balling here in the desert!
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I would have been the one to try to prove them wrong and get me a bunch of roses with averages past that lol.
In Colorado Springs, I was told you couldn’t grow melons or Passionfruit due to the short growing season and other factors but i ended up proving everyone wrong and a bunch of people around me started growing melons afterwards 
and i ended up selling my passionfruit to my neighborhood as well to make sure everyone knew it’s possible 
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We definitely did the same as you! Gardeners will be gardeners!
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It’s nice to grow roses for their fragrance. I tend to grow roses for their colors and forms. The nicest fragrant roses I have had are Abraham Darby and Double Delight. I think you probably will like their fragrance.
You are a full zone warmer. Your sun requirement is different from mine. I put America in a shadier spot than other roses. It has not been as productive as others, even though it gets the same treatment.
@Melon If you want to see how badly a rose can ball, try Abraham Darby. Its flower buds completely balled, the whole tree. The balling and black spot was why I removed it despite its beautiful color, old rose form and fragrance.
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I can’t Google that for some reason, it gives me sports stuff. (Rose ball)
Nevermind, got it with the variety name search too. That doesn’t look so bad but personally, i only grow for fragrance too lol. I like the traditional looks better than the circle in circle in a circle look that some of them have
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Check out David Austin roses. All have those beautiful “old garden rose” form and most have nice fragrances. I used to grow several. They tend to get black spot where I am in the east coast. Some are quite thorny.
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I used to grow some tea and grandiflora roses many years ago. I recall some of my favorite for fragrance were ‘Double Delight’ and ‘New Zeeland’.
These days I only have shrub roses (Champlain, Chuckles and Carefree Delight). The rose market seems to have been decimated by all the knockout roses and others introduced by William Radler of WI.
Not whining about Mr. Radler’s contributions to hardy shrub roses, but it seems around here nobody wants to plant tea roses or other shrub rose varieties. Knockout is 99% of what I see in people’s yards these days. Even in Florida it is popular (due to powdery mildew resistance).
Hooray to all those still growing fragrant roses of any kind. Even the old time climbing roses. Anbody left growing persian yellow, Austrian copper and other old varieties?
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some more distant drums. Cinco de mayo and golden celebration are also both at pre-bloom, but its supposed to rain tomorrow and the next few days so im not sure they’ll really get to bloom.
I got this one from rogue valley rose last spring which sells roses at band size. definitely will keep buying from them their pricing is great and they have some great varieties.
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