My original Madame came with the house (5 years ago), a huge old plant planted alongside a treated pine arbour. At first she was a sickly, rusty thing but when I walked out one mornoing to find the whole garden saturated with the scent of just one open bloom, I had to keep her and have since bought her a sister which I planted against another pillar. the canes grow very tall, so I either tie them up to the wire of the arbour or cut them. Ideally you should peg them out, but I dont have space for that, so I just chop off whatever looks awkward. It's not a pretty plant, inheriting ugly canes from its damask parents and sprawling dendancies from the Chinas, but the blooms make up for it. Now that I have improved the sandy soil with bentonite (cat litter) and have been giving more regular organic fertiliser, the foliage is looking really good and she is putting out new canes left-right and centre. I would give yours a good thick mulching with lupin mulch or sillilar and a drench with sea-weed tonic (not a fertiliser) to promote new canes from the base. Then, if you can, peg them out along the ground. Don't try and keep the stiunted old canes living. It seems to go better when you cut them off after theyre spent (as you have) and alow them to be replaced from the base. But thats just my experience. This may help. http://www.vintagerosery.com/roses/madameisaacpereire_.htm

One of these years the mulch mound is going to really bite you. You'll have winterkill from canker near the ground that you wouldn't get if you just ignored the roses. If they are leafing out practically to the tips, they aren't getting any benefit from it. Just do nothing to hardy roses.

@fragrancenutter, how's your MIP doing now as far as repeat? My own-root plant is in it's second season in a container. It hasn't put on much new growth at all, but it did put out a very nice first flush this spring. It defoliated, and got ravaged by japanese beetles. Now starting to grow back its leaves. There have been no new canes though for some reason :-/

If you have several other very fragrant roses, are you sure it will matter if you sneak in one or two that aren't? I'm not a "fragrance fiend" (lol) myself,so I don't really know how those of you who care a lot about fragrance feel, but to me fragrance can be very elusive. Some years, for example, Paul's Himalayan Musk perfumes the entire area during it's all-too-brief blooming period, but last spring I didn't notice much of anything. Other roses seem to be fragrant only during certain times of the day,or lose their fragrance once cut, etc, etc, etc. Also. to me at least, there's the "too much of a good thing" factor. After wallowing in the inebriating perfume of ,say, Mme. Isaac Pereire and others like it, I truly treasure the light,citrus-y scent of Harlekin (HMF calls its' scent "strong wild rose",whatever that means. To me, it's very light,fresh, and lemony; I wouldn't use the word "strong".) There is such a thing as over-kill! And note that Nik specified "to my nose".Sensory perceptions can and do differ so much from person to person, so for all of these reasons personally I'd advise you to just be happy that you finally snagged an Ascot. After all,if in the long run you decide you don't like it, your plan DOES admit the possibility of making eliminations...