my experience so far has been very positive. I have 5 of them, I bought them in autumn 2007. They grow big, they are now 130cm x 130cm (about 4 feet x 4) and are said to go to 2m x 2m (7 feet x 7).
They bloom a lot, very scented, big flowers, magenta color. they like some hours of shadow in summer (mine get about half a day of sun and half a day of shadow).

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q137/scardan123/hansa1-1.jpg

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q137/scardan123/hansa2-1.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful:

Mine is in half day or more of shade and fights hollyhocks for sun. Blooms OK for being in shade. Sets hips. The bloom scent is of cloves, to my nose. Pretty foliage, unhappy being sprayed with anything.

Can't tell you about BS because there's not much of it here.

I forgot to tell: no disease ever until now.
But I've been told it tends to become leggish, so roseraie de l'hay might be better. But both are beautiful, provided you have space for them.

You probably can't spray it. Most rugosas hate sprays.

I've seen it grown in Pennsylvania. It was healthy there.

It smells divinely of cloves.

Rosefolly

I thought I remembered something about rusosas not liking spray. Thanks.

Bet, I know that Olga is growing some rugosa's that are disease free for her. She mentioned Roseraie de l'Hay and Polareis as being disease resistant. I don't know if she grows Hansa. Hopefully she will see this and respond.

Carol

Everybody and there brother grows hansa here. I had two for about 6 years. Liked the flowers and scent, ok rebloom, sets hips, good diease resistance no bs. My buddy has one which is hudge 10 ft. I just didn't like the foliage. Very sparse as they age, seemed to get cane bores, alot of dead wood, some leaves yellow and that is on all 5-6 people i know who have hansa. My sister has the nicest one. I grow other rugosa's i like better. But the flowers are really nice...mark

Come to think of it, most of the roses there had some BS, but the hansas looked very healthy and clean. I'm going back on Sunday. And for only $10 a plant, I'll risk it. I really liked the way the foliage looked. Sort of fuzzy.

I've got about a dozen or so rugosas, including Hansa. I will say it's a tossup between Hansa and Rugelda which is the WORST of mine. I had had such high hopes for Hansa, but it hasn't performed. I may have a bad clone of it or I may have it in a spot it doesn't like. I would also like to add that I have started seedlings from Hansa's hips (among other roses), and Hansa's seedlings seem to be the weekest compared to those of Henri Martin, William Lobb, Frau Dagmar Hastrup, Complicata, and Darlow's Enigma.

I haven't been able to see much of a difference in flowers between Hansa, Moje Hammarberg (which is very healthy for me) and Roseriae de l'Hay.

I hope to get a piece of someone's healthy Hansa sometime.

Robert

Why I want Hansa is the fragrance. Than again if it's a poor performer, I'll forego it. Robert, have you had a chance to smell Hansa?

Carla

Carla,

I don't recall Hansa being any more or less fragrant, or having a unique fragrance. Perhaps I'll smell it when it blooms again.

Robert

Geez, I've always really liked Hansa and have grown it both up north in Vermont and now down here in Kentucky. It's been in the ground one year here after sitting in the pot ghetto for two seasons (my bad!) and just keeps on pumping out canes. It's blooming now! I have two of them and put them in the worst conditions imaginable - crappy soil out in the field (non-amended) and out of the reach of the hose so no watering. I put my rugosas in the worst conditions and they just shrug it off and go like crazy. Now that I live in a climate where I can grow many more classes of roses than when I lived in zone 4, I still love my rugosas. I still think they have the strongest and best scent to my nose. Hansa is no exception. There are lots of hips too, a friend of mine in Vermont grew them just to make rose hip tea and they made a nice complement framing her entry walkway. They do get big, 7 x 7 is not uncommon, and vase-shaped so plant some companions at their feet. You will not be disappointed.

My Hansa is indestructible, never any bs or other disease, is froma piece from my grandfather's farm in western Mass where it was probably planted around 1916. It is, however, a Japanese Beetle buffet. Until this year and my free range hens, and I only saw a few - as in less than 5!
The scent of Hansa is what I think of as the oldfashioned rose dusting powder/cologne. Wonderful.
My Hansa flowers are both larger and more fragrant than my Roseraie de l'Haye.

For me RdLH is as fragrant as Hansa, but much more BS resistant. Hansa gets BS some yeears badly here and RdLH stays mostly clean.
Olga

Hansa is kind of obsolete. I have one, and my neighbour has one. Hers tends to get rust and blackspot. As for the fragrance, just buy a little jar of cloves, and sniff it every now and then. You need to get yourself a real rose - to me, David Austin is incomparable for smell, and I'm a rose perfume addict. I really love the myrrh heady intoxicating and exotic fragrance of Fair Bianca. Also, she is really healthy, hardly gets any disease, I've got a hedge of them (40 plants) and they are georgeous. I would not waste my time if I was going to make a Hansa hedge, it would just simply not compare, not in the same class.

It is all a matter of taste. I don't think we should put lables on which is a real rose and which is not. I would take Hansa hedge over Fair Bianca any time. And I honestly doubt Fair Bianca will be healthy in GA. I love myrrh fragrance too, but Hansa's fragrance is absolutely wonderful in my opinion. Also Hansa makes much better shaped bush and usually is more vigorous and healthy. It can be that your neighbor's Hansa is virused or the soil is not suitable for rugosa.
Olga

I don't want to start arguing about what smells like a "real" rose. Perhaps the origin of the specific rose plant has something to do with scent?- mine are all suckers of a cutting of the "mother plant" from the farm, where it may have been among the originally available Hansas. In addition what about the impact of individual noses functioning differently (I found that for most of my life, as a non smoker I was able to "pick up" more subtle scent cues than my smoking friends and relatives - but I think age is dulling that sense a bit).
Anyway - mine is healthy, survived rose can borer that wiped out most of my other rugosas. Rarely has any leaf issues. And makes beautiful hips.
And nothing is as decadent as a few full blown Hansa roses floating in a shallow glass dish, with candlelight....