Your responses to this question will be interesting to all of us, I hope.
Some people will only grow roses with a fragrance, some just for color and shape, others for all 3.
Is fragrance an absolute "MUST Have" for you or will you settle for just color and shape and/or quantity of blooms ?
I only have about 50 roses due to the size of my garden. I started out only growing fragrant roses but many of the ones I liked didn't perform well in my climate. Space being a major factor in what I could grow and get the "most bang for the buck" evolved into a predominantly Floribunda collection. Some are fragrant, many are not, but what they lack in olfactory appeal is surpassed by heavy bloom production and variety of colors.
Which rose qualities do you REFUSE to "budge" on ?

I like roses with the classic high centered tight classic HT form. Healthy productive plants that repeat quickly and blossoms that open slowly and age gracefully. Color is important and I love fragrance but consider that an added bonus. Beauty to my eye first.

I go for primarily color, then fragrance, then rebloom, then shape of the flower. I don't like the single petaled roses, but I do have a couple (Austrian Copper & Escapade). I love Austrian Copper for it's color & the fact it's an early bloomer & sooooooooooo easy to take care of... I don't take care of mine at all. I love Escapade because it's sooo fragrant!! I don't care for pink, but Escapade is VERY fragrant & looks smashing sandwiched between 2 Sunny Delights. But color is my primary ticket. That's why I have so many in the blue family.

Primarily color first and then I like reading reviews, if there are lots of glowing reviews, it's hard to resist. Also, since I visited a couple of rose gardens on a regular basis, I can see how they are growing year round, if I like the bloom then I evaluate what the rebloom is like and the overall look of the plant. I have seen plenty of pretty blooms but awful looking plants. My best rose in my garden right now is Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale, shiny healthy leaves, lots of rebloom and vibrant flowers, lots of bang for your garden! Rose (Rosa 'Gebrueder Grimm')

Everyone knows I'm not a discriminating rose gardener. I grow all types, but I must admit that I've shied away from adding any more OGRs to my garden. I prefer modern roses because they never get powdery mildew or rust and they also seem to have stronger pest resistance than the OGRs. If I had to choose a favorite class, it would be the shrub category because I love David Austin's roses and the Kordes fairytale series. Fragrance is of no importance to me.

I have lots of room to grow things but not a lot of time to devote to the project. I choose my roses mainly for their ability to thrive with almost no care. I am particularly attracted to roses with an interesting history: Maggie a rose found on a property dating back to the Civil War and before, and more recently Peggy Martin the rose that survived Hurricane Katrina's flooding in New Orleans. Most of my roses are Old Garden Roses with a few modern shrubs. Fragrance and color are a nice plus, but toughness is a necessity.

Plant survival here depends more and more on the ability to grow back from not much more than roots, so I'll compromise on almost everything except vigor and toughness. I don't spray, so disease resistance falls within this area as well.

Next in line is fragrance. I really need to savor a scent to fully enjoy a rose bloom. There are so many other plants with blooms that (to me, at least) are just as pretty as roses, but they'll probably never be my favorites since they lack scent.

Chelle - Do you have HoneySweet? It's a Buck's rose, so it's practically care-free and it has the most LUSCIOUS scent.. and definitely hardy down to zone 5..

No Toni, I don't have that one. Funny thing is though, I have some in a vase yet from Valentine's Day that look like it. I wasn't all that fond of orange-y colored blooms before this, but now I'm changing my mind. I might have to look for that one. Thanks!

Seems like we all have to trade one thing for another with roses.
Disease resistance is now my top priority.

There's one of those open-air flower stands across the street from our office. They always have lots of containers of flowers out there and I have yet to find ONE rose they sell that has a fragrance.

Cal-Mike - Aren't almost all florist roses scentless? I don't understand why that it is, but I've sniffed many florist roses never have any scent. I wonder why that it is.

The folks developing florist's roses apparently have sacrificed fragrance for showy long-stemmed blooms with amazing vase life.

Sometime ago I heard or read that as a general rule fragrant roses are often more prone to get mildew. Anyone have experience with this?

Not I; none of my roses get mildew. It must be somewhat regional.

I have lots of fragrant roses, but I have no humidity. I've seen powdery mildew once on Charles de Mills back in.. 2011? For a few days, then never again. I'm no help. Now if you wanna talk about static cling...

It's not true of powdery mildew. Only Dorothy Perkins gets powdery mildew in my garden, and it has hardly any fragrance at all. We don't get downy mildew here, so I don't know anything about that.