If it is like the Enigmas I have seen you may not see much of the foundation in two or three years. I would place it a few feet from the house and train the canes in a fan shape so that it does not form a very large rounded shape.

Lance

I'm not in your zone, so, my comments may not work...but, like Lance has said, prepare for it to put on some growth.

Also, I have not experienced the wafting (or any real) scent. It's in its third spring for me.

On a positive, note....out of 500 roses, everyone that has seen my DE, tucked in a corner, wants it because it is so beautiful...

Robert

Except for concerns about potential size, I see no downsides. Mine is five years old, third year in its current location in a corner made by sunroom foundation and below-the-deck trellis. I bought it as a bare root, and small; it spent year one in a pot, year two in a temporary bed, and moved into the current location summer 05. I planted it several feet away, with growth habit in mind. There have been no disease issues, and the Japanese Beetles seem to prefer the rugosas nearby. It had absolutely no winter kill on any canes this year, was one of the first to break dormancy, and is vigorously reaching out. It is now about four feet tall, with a half dozen canes varying in length from the four foot max down to two feet or so, and just starting some basal breaks for new canes. I may not have allowed enough room. As far as scent, the few blooms it had as it was getting established were sweet, but there weren't enough of them to reach any sort of "wafting" mass. We'll see.....

It is also very healthy.
When it is in bloom, we can smell it from the front
room.
alida

Mine wafts and it's pretty. Downsides. OK let me ask you this...Have you ever heard of Teddy Rooseveldt and "The Territorial Imperative? Howabout "landgrabbing developers"? In short cut him back hard and often, in CA, probably not such a problem in MA but he is friendly...
la

Many other Synstylae or Synstylae hybrids grow much larger, more quickly. The main issues are the numerous slender hooked prickles and the small flower size (for those who want large or larger flowers), it looks like Rosa multiflora in flower. Small specimens with small leaves and slender stems borne in early stages of development could be mistaken for a miniature rose.

This is a spot where I now have an apparently dead R. x alba semi-plena. Those of you who know that rose know it's big, so this spot needs a big rose. It also needs a rose that is hardy, disease resistant and worth looking at even when it's out of bloom. One of the main reasons I chose the York rose in the first place was that it has nice hips in the late autumn.

It had a wonderful scent that travelled when it was in full bloom, but it only bloomed for about two weeks at most.

I'm not a big fan of R. multiflora because it's so invasive here, but if DE isn't invasive and it's a hardy, dependable repeater I'm willing to consider it.

I'm also thinking about Canary Bird and Clethra alnifolia.

This spot gets lawn sprinkler action every day between late May and October. The sprinklers are on a timer. I have no control over any of that and they run for about 30-40 mins. just before dawn. This makes for leaves that are unavoidably wet every morning.

It's blackspot heaven. The York rose was grafted and virus infected. Apparently that damaged its BS immunity because if I didn't spray it it would completely defoliate (either from BS or another fungus that left black spots on the leaves, although not in a BS pattern).