Larry, I'm outside of Knoxville, but I know some of the gardens near you well. Soil wise, the very large Garden that honors Ted and Mary Alice Mills in the city park in Soddy Daisy Tennessee is on a valley fill very like your soils. It's been there for at least eight years, so would be a good place to visit to see what mature specific bushes look like. More constrained is the garden at the Chattanooga ChooChoo, but it may have more recent introductions. I don't know the garden in Huntsville, but the Rose Society there are fans of modern roses. You might also be interested in the TriState Rose Society in Chattanooga. The ARS site below links to them or contacts for them on their Find Your Local Rose Society tab. Tri State is in Tenarky District; Huntsville is in with Georgia and Alabama. You do know that one person's fragrance is another's "I can't smell anything"? The best time to sniff is morning, before the heat of the day causes evaporation of some of the scent. (I think Frederick Mistral is a wonderfully scented rose, BTW) Here is a link that might be useful: American Rose Society website

There is one rose I use continually for cutting - lasts a good 2 weeks without shattering and looks lovely at all stages. Not an obvious choice but the little ground cover Sommerwind, aka Surrey, bred by Kordes, makes a perfect bouquet if you cut a generous stem with several clusters (this rose is in continuous bloom with a fast regrowth - the only downside is no scent). It is a fairly generic pink and the bloom is quite ordinary....but what is extraordinary is the graceful shape of each spray, and its ability to last for weeks, still looking pristine.

If you like fragrance, here is a rose that won "Best in show" based on its fragrance alone. Typhoo Tea is very thorny, long stemmed, gets about 7 feet tall in my Chicagoland garden, and relatively narrow for its height, definitely needs spraying for BS. I'd put its fragrance in the Mr Lincoln, Fragrant Cloud, Bella Roma, Lemon Spice category as far as strength of scent goes. It might be a tiny bit stronger smelling, if that's possible. The scent is fruity deep and complex. The picture is accurate, its a bicolor, with the underside being lighter. That being said, my favorite is Double Delight. This post was edited by ameri2nal on Fri, Feb 6, 15 at 18:19

Sara-Ann and other cold-zoners: Which of the roses that Sarah mentioned below are most winter hardy, and were they own-root, grafted-on-Dr.Huey, or grafted-on-multiflora? thank you. Below are the roses that Sara-Ann (zone 6) mentioned: "Memorial Day, Double Delight, Beverly, Perfume Delight, Tiffany, Francis Meilland, Bewitched, Twilight Zone, Pink Peace, Fragrant Plum, Grande Dame, Buxom Beauty, Big Momma, Melodee Parfumme, Fragrant Plum, Twilight Zone and Melodee Parfumme, Angel Face, Sheila's Perfume and Sunsprite." From StrawChicago: From the above list, Double Delight survives 8 of my zone 5 winters as grafted-on-Dr.Huey, Bewitched died since it was a tiny rooting, own-root Twilight Zone is vigorous & blooms lots after seven zone 5 winters, Angel face died both as own-root and grafted-on-Dr.Huey, Sheila's perfume died as own-root through winter.