I'll suggest The McCartney Rose as my best modern HT wafter. Pros: the fragrance wafts and is fantastic (strong sweet damask similar to my nose like Madame Isaac Perreire & Comte de Chambord.) She's a very vigorous/tall grower and she doesn't ball in the rain. Cons- While I've read folks in other climates say she is extremely disease resistant, she does get a fair amount of BS here and she does not last well as a cut flower. I've kept her precisely because her fragrance wafts- even non rose people in my family walk in the yard and ask "oh! what's that smell?" I've tried about 200 or so roses over the last 10+ years and I'm no spray (but in the rainy pacific northwest.) I can name you some varieties I find quite fragrant, but they don't really waft their fragrances...I remember wafting fragrance on Victorian Spice, (Harkness floribunda-it was not disease resistant here so I got rid of it) and Maigold (a once blooming Kordes shrub that smells vaguely like orange juice/linseed. The bees also go bonkers for it-it blooms ahead of all my other roses.) Oh and I can smell the hedge of Mary Rose at the Heirloom display garden from across the parking lot-but that is because the strong myrrh smell makes me ill-LOL! I'm not sure if these will work in your climate, but if you are looking for wafting plants in general-also consider sweetbox (sarcococca confusa) and daphne odora. Sweetbox is a winter blooming shrub (blooming now in my area) with the most inconspicuous nothing flowers that float their fragrance all over the yard. Sweetbox blooms a few weeks earlier than Daphne Odora here-but that Daphne is one of my all time favorite fragrances. Here is a link that might be useful: The McCartney Rose

Mardi Gras looks like it can't wait to party! Would love to see how they're all doing later in the year; after the heat here this summer, finding roses that can cope with higher temps and still look ok has become even more imperative...

How refreshing to hear you all accepting "other" roses into your old rose gardens! Harry I love your exuberant garden! (I NEED that Mandarin honeysuckle, tell me where you found it!) peplill, that Kordes 'Grandmaster' is incredible. I've never heard of it but it reminds me of something, I can't remember what just now. Olga, I've admitted to having a Knockout and a Blushing Knockout and, yes, they have their place and function. As a sidenote, I've wanted to SP KO for two years now and my DH has persuaded me to think otherwise. His logic is how can you want to dig out the most disease resistant, insect resistant, floriferous, most densly foliated, and hardiest rose in our garden? That's when I give it another chance until I can figure out another rose that has the same qualifications I can replace it with (when he's on a business trip!) Blushing KO is a more pleasing pink with bluish green foliage, better to blend with other roses so it stays. I also have Carefree Sunshine (thank you Jean!) which is new to me last year but is turning out to be sensational. It is a soft butter yellow and just as disease resistant as the KOs. Of course, most of the hybrid musks qualify, lots of shrubs, oh, Sally Holmes definitely, and rugosa hybrids, there are just too many to mention. I haven't had much luck with the floribundas I've tried, something about the wavy petal form that doesn't match, or color, or stiffness, I don't know what it is. Think about bloom form, color, and fragrance and try to match them to the antiques you love. It's fun! My new love - Autumn Sunset with goldflame honeysuckle

Wish we could be there, but not. I thought for a day or so there we might need to make an emergency run to Sacramento right around that time, but I think we've dodged that bullet. See you the end of the month. Jeri