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I just read it in the British Sunday Telegraph -

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=YEIAD2VYM0XOHQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/10/21/nrose121.xml

After 17 years, David Austin has created a class of roses which combine the scent and appearance of the old-fashioned "cabbage" rose, with survival rates of up to 10 days, but would like to make that even longer.

Great article. I've noticed that commercial roses didn't have much of a scent. I had to strain to detect it and what was there was just a shadow of what I remembered roses smelled like.

Great article, thanks for sharing it!

Herb3 I went to Chelsea Flower Show last year and there was a stand of Austin roses. I didn't look for it I followed my nose! The stand was breathtakingly beautiful with arches and pillars of climbing roses and every colour of shrub rose you could possibly imagine but the smell....hmmmm. Pure heaven. They have become the best selling roses in Britain since their introduction. Not surprising really.

That's great, but here's what confuses me. What was wrong with cabbage roses in the first place? Now, I've never grown anything but cabbage roses, but they've never given me a reason to try anything else, since they take root and thrive from the get-go. Are they less resistant to disease? Or was it a matter of color selection?

It's a "fad" thing. Different varieties of roses go "in" and "out" all the time. Rather like clothing styles. Just pick what you like and stick with it. Many of the old roses have such a wonderful scent and throw such beautiful hips. Just wonderful.