I went to Otto and Son's Nursery today in Filmore, CA and checked out their red roses. There was a heatwave lately of 100+ degrees Fahrenheit, so most of the roses were looking faded. It was a good test to see which roses were looking there best. Double Delight was faded pink and white, but still pretty. Firefighter was a close distance away and was also a faded-pink, but not as pretty. I was disappointed, because I didn't think it matched very well with Saint Patrick, a greenish-yellow rose I planned on having as its companion. Right now I have Firefighter in a pot in partial shade, because it is so young, but will eventually be placed in full sun. I no longer think Firefighter is heat tolerant in my zone, but I still think it would be a good match with Double Delight in a cooler zone. Even the older blooms were fragrant. The red roses looking the best in heat were today were Grande Amore and Ingrid Bergman. The staff there said Grande Amore starts out dark red and fades to a lighter red, not pink. Ingrid Bergman was very nice and they were showcasing it at the front of the nursery. But unfortunately, there was no fragrance that I could detect. This post was edited by jasminerose4u on Sun, Jul 20, 14 at 3:32

Arlene, I wish you the best with your wonderful new hobby! My FD is grafted, I ordered it from Edmunds who no longer carries it. I have begun to grow several own root HT's and the results look promising. There are many good HT roses that aren't available grafted. Some other very fragrant HT's I have are Tiffany, Firefighter, Pink Peace, Memorial Day, Perfume Delight, Grande Dame, Beverly, Francis Meilland, Big Momma, Bewitched, Chrysler Imperial, Cinnamon Dolce, Double Delight, Big Momma and Buxom Beauty, all grafted. I also have La France, which is own root, heavenly fragrance! An own root granfiflora, English Perfume is wonderful. A couple of other grandifloras that I have which are fragrant are Twilight Zone and Fragrant Plum. Probably way more info than you needed or wanted, but I enjoy sharing. Austin roses are new to me, I have a couple, there are several I'm interested in, they are beautiful.

I would suggest Grande Dame. I detect no fragrance...but I find fragrance doesn't appear for some roses until its 4th year where I live. Members here have commented that their Grande Dames have fabulous fragrance. Valencia would be another suggestion. It has a strong perfumey smell. My third would be The McCartney Rose - a relatively new rose. I'm interested in what everyone else says. This is a good thread idea! Carol

To me, the most fragrant Austin, and my favorite, is The Prince, which smells like an old-fashioned garden rose, like something that would be in a grandmother or great-grandmother's garden. Close runner-ups would be Munstead Wood, which has a very rich fragrance with whiff of berries, and Jude the Obscure, which smells like the Annick Goutal perfume, Eau d'Hadrien. I just started growing Evelyn, and the scent is not powerful (yet), but it is really unique, unlike any rose I've ever smelled. It sort of smells delicious, like you could eat it. The Alwick Rose is also one of my most fragrant, it smells like Raspberries, but also a bit like cake. Lady Emma Hamilton is really also great for scent. I don't get as powerful of a fragrance from Young Lycidas as the roses I mentioned above, but it is quite lovely, and on par with Summer Song in that they both smell great and and are original in every way. They not only have unique fragrances but colors that aren't found in other roses that i have seen, really exceptional in that way. However, while all they are both are healthy, they have sort of gangly/spindly habits, so are perhaps best planted among other plants that will sort of support and fill in for the lankiness. So beautiful though. Jubilee Celebration also gets honorable mention for original scent, in particular, and color as well, but will possibly disappear off the market soon, I have heard. There was a discussion above about the white roses. I have Glamis Castle, Desdemona, Claire Austin, and William and Catherine. None of their perfumes are that powerful in my garden, and I don't see that much of a difference in their flowers. Desdemona perhaps has the most complex fragrance. William and Catherine and Glamis Castle have that very "myrrh" fragrance that some people love or hate (so does the lovely mauve Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which I personally adore), as does Wollerton Old Hall, which has a bit more myrrh than I expected (I kept hearing things, like "honey, etc.) but does smell very sweet and rather strong (and it's only in its first summer). William and Catherine has an attractive and compact bush and is super healthy. Claire Austin needs a lot of space and mine is 15 years old and never better. Desdemona has been floppy and thrown out many octopus canes so am not super enchanted by it yet. Glamis Castle is still a newbie so too soon to tell but it has given me an impressive number of blooms in the 3 or 4 months I have had it (own root). Of the more recent additions, I couldn't get either Gabriel Oak or Eustacia Vye to take off. Emily Bronte in year two, finally, has some repeat bloom and her fragrance is really lovely, and growing on me, and perhaps rivals Evelyn's, but is a bit different. But the one rose that seems to have the most fragrance projection power has to be Mary Rose, which I planted at the end of last summer because it is supposed to bloom all the time, unlike many trickier varieties. And it really does. And the day or so, it is not in bloom, it is remarkable by the absence of its fragrance, which smells like expensive beauty products and adds a note to the overall perfume of the garden but is not the best rose to take inside because it grows in clusters. Golden Celebration smells sweet and lovely, and its cheefuly yellow color makes it remarkable, but in my opinion, the fragrance is perhaps a bit over-hyped in the marketing materials, even if also amazing. I personally don't get strawberries from it. However, mine is only in year one. Abraham Darby also has one of the most complex scents, but mine are still in there first year, so the fragrance is not that powerful yet. Hope this helps anyone trying to figure this out!