Several of the photos of this shrub look exactly like the “Dr Grill” I bought here in the US. On the Dr Grill HMF page, it states that Dr Grill sold in the US is not Dr Grill, but doesn’t say what it is. Looking at these pictures, I think mine might be General Gallieni. Has anyone else come to the same conclusion? It’s also possible that I was sent a mislabeled rose. ????‍♀️

I was just sniffing this rose the other day, and I do like the scent. It's not classic old rose at all, and it's not super strong, but I find it very appealing. It's different to anything else in the garden and IMO it makes a nice change.

On that basis, and seeing it had been rated Poor for fragrance in the member ratings, I just gave it a rating of Good. That has lifted the overall rating to Fair-. I still don't think that really does it justice, and would suggest that anyone contemplating getting this rose find an example to sniff before taking the ratings for fragrance too seriously.

It's also a fairly easy rose to work with. It does have thorns, but not that many and they're not hard to work around. It's robustly healthy in a sub-tropical climate too.

General Gallieni seems to be an incredibly variable rose. Mine has just thrown out some mid-winter flowers which are a clear pink, almost the same colour as Susan Louise. These are the first mid-winter blooms I've had from it, since it's only been in the ground a year, and are completely different to the ones I was getting in spring.

I've also noticed that the scent is particularly delicious at the moment. It was good back in the hotter weather, but seems to have become more complex and refined over winter. The cedar and smoky notes are still there, but are now subtler and blending better with the Tea and floral aspects. The overall effect is really quite something.

Edit: A few weeks later, and it's now throwing out flowers that are a deep, rich burgundy. No pink. Pink all gone.

Updated information:

Tough over summer. Holds foliage well. Seems like it will keep a good form without too much work.
Hasn't done much in the way of flowering yet, but presumably will once it matures some more.

Aphids don't seem to like it much, which is quite a handy trait.