I saw this today in the Queen Mary's garden in Regent's Park. Very pretty, looking none too healthy (blackspot and chlorotic foliage) and gorgeously fragrant (not of tea, though tea was in the mix). I guess I got lucky, as others report the scent to be intermittent.

This beauty is in my zone 10 garden and is growing in it's first year with canes already 4 ft tall! Any idea if an 5 ft 9" diameter obelisk would be big enough or if I should get the 7 ft 15 inch diameter one?
Thanks,
Joan

This rose performed well for me. However, it has no fragrance that I can discern which is the major reason I no longer have it.

I grew Sophy's Rose in a zone 6b garden in New Jersey where virtually every hybrid tea rose died in its first year thanks to blackspot. Six were planted at the drip-line of a twenty-five foot tall cedar - north and a bit east of the tree. They got perhaps four hours of direct sunlight per day. Most of the time the soil was pretty dry: too dry for Super Excelsa to grow, for example. I lost some heuchera there, too. And Mary Rose would not bloom there. The roses bloomed generously each spring and repeated reliably in fall when most "remontant" roses did not. In the decade I lived with them, I cannot remember seeing them suffer from any blackspot infection. Except for planting roses beyond their cold hardiness range, I don't think I've ever grown a rose in a more challenging environment. If I had loved the color of the flower at every stage, Sophy's Rose would certainly be among my favorite roses.