At the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, well established plants never show any sign of disease (without spraying). I consider it very disease resistant.
The delightful foliage fragrance is much stronger than that of sweet briar R. rubiginosa, and has been called the strongest in the genus.
There was a planting of 5 shrubs at the Arnold (since shaded out and removed) whose foliage I could often smell a hundred feet downwind in moist weather, and I'm nearly anosmic. I find the fragrance of both the flowers and the foliage is much like crushed Sassafras or Lindera foliage. Some references also compare it to Myrtus, which to my nose is also similar. I don't find it at all similar to incense. I find it sweet, light, and delicious, but altogether unlike that of other roses. The flowers emit the same fragrance as the foliage.
The mature habit is graceful, arching, broadly vase-shaped. Unlike many roses, it's an attractive landscape plant year-round, even in winter. It does not respond well to pruning, so plant it where it can grow to its full size without intervention.
This is the earliest rose in bloom I know, always a few days before R. hugonis.
This species does sucker, but suckers emerge tight in to the base. Long-established plants at the Arnold stayed in tight clumps and did not spread the way rugosas do.
An early-blooming spring rose. The foliage is especially fragrant after a rain shower, and really does smell like incense -- a beautiful and distinctive scent.
