Madame Isaac Periere has the most wonderful scent of any rose I've smelled, described in books as a true damask rose scent. To me, the scent is much more delightful than the scent of a tea rose. The flowers are beautifully shaped and large. The only drawbacks to this plant are her disinclination to bloom much out of season, outside of a glorious burst of blooms in the spring and a lesser flush in the fall, and her tendency to get bare and black-spotted in the late summer. Perhaps the latter would be better if I sprayed her with poison, but I hate to do that, and she's very good at surviving nonetheless.

Update: Sadly, Mme. Isaac perished this summer (June 2008) when the neighbor's yard guy accidentally knocked it over when mowing. She'd been suffering for some time from a severe case of blackspot. The lawn care guy would never have failed to see her if she'd been big and healthy.