I'm also in zone 6 & I've planted many roses over the years and struggled with the priority of fragrance over high importance of disease resistance. Many yeas ago, I purchased roses based solely on fragrance and as a result, I threw out many a rose that were diseased as they just didn't produce enough beautifully fragrant flowers to make them worthy of putting up with their poor foliage.

Now that I'm older & have no time to coddle black-spot prone roses, I plant varieties that are most disease-resistant but still floriferous. If they have fragrance, all the better but I have noticed some of the resistant ones(carpet roses, OSO Easy) are only lightly fragrant. I have found a few that were great performers(no disease) and fragrant but they were few & far between. I like some climbers & shrub roses that produce fragrant & many flowers(Explorer series, Veilchenblau & New Dawn)) but I never thought they were strongly perfumed but still delightful. Rugosa roses did well for me too & you can't beat the fragrance.

Some of the newer HTs bred in Europe are said to have both good fragrance and resistance to blackspot. I hope people who have experienced that will chime in (and be sure to say where you live).

I think a lot of breeders are working on those two traits right now. Last century they were more interested in the color and bloom form at the cost of fragrance and health. But things have changed and people want that fragrance back that so many of the well known HTs lacked. And with today's more eco conscious society disease resistance is more important than ever. Times change and the roses we seek change along with them. It just takes time for things to catch up to each other.

I do love my Julia Child for her good health and her fragrance.

Savanah for a light pink HT very disease resistant and very fragrant.

Summer Romance - med pink same as above

First Crush - Lt pink same as above

Dark Desire- don't know how to describe color same as above

Easter Basket - extremely fragrant and very disease resistant not the most gorgeous flower in the world but I'm happy

Polar Express - fragrant extremely disease resistant

Thats all I can think of right now

I have some of the drift roses. They are very disease resistant, but they lack any fragrance for me. I love them despite the lack of fragrance. I have Julia Child too. Great rose. I've had pretty good luck with floribunda roses from Weeks in terms of disease resistance. I've pretty much given up on hybrid teas, but I will look into the recommendations posted here.

My strongest smelling rose is Louis Phillip and it is practically disease resistant. A lot of the OGRs have a great scent and are super roses.

I'd recommend Felcite Parmentier--very fragrant and disease resistant. Grows well despite tree roots. But, its an Alba old garden rose that only blooms once a year.

Wow, those Blossomtime roses go on and on. My complements.

Some of my HTs that are lovely, very fragrant, and bs resistant: Valencia, Oklahoma, Berolina, Memoire (Ice Cream), Elle, Peter Mayle.

I should add, that "bs resistance" does not mean BS free--especially when applied to hybrid teas. However, for hybrid teas, the above ones are fragrant and fairly good on bs resistance.

For fragrant and bs resistant shrubs, there are Austin's Lady of Shalott, Munstead Wood, Pretty Jessica, and some people think Jubilee Celebration is although I have some problems with bs on mine (not a disease-magnet, however). A number of Austin's more recent roses are also fragrant and good on bs resistance.

Others: Well Being (modern shrub); older roses: Souvenir de la Malmaison and its almost identical twin Mystic Beauty. Some claim the hybrid perpetual Mrs. John Laing is both very fragrant and bs resistant, but mine has some (but not a lot) of bs problems.

Several of my hybrid musks are fragrant and reasonably bs resistant.

There are also some roses with only moderate fragrance and good bs resistance--ought to do in a pinch. : )

Hope that helps.

Kate

Love those roses of yours pat_bamaz! I want them too!

Apricot Vigorosa despite the name is a floribunda. Very fragrant and extremely disease resistant rose.

Just beginning to grow, larger rose slugs ate most of her blooms

Beverly and Francis Meilland are both disease resistant and very fragrant.

I'm trying a lot of the same roses Pat mentioned. So far, as yearlings go, so good.