I was hoping someone else would answer this, perhaps someone with something a bit more positive to say, but on the assumption this patio rose will be kept in a pot, all I can say is, best treated as temporary visitors rather than expecting a long term plant. So if you were thinking your cousin would have the rose ongoing in its pot, that's extremely unlikely - in my experience, patio roses don't even make it through the winter in pots, but maybe that's just me...

It isn't just you Bamboo; in my experience also a patio rose is just for the summer and then will be fit only for the compost heap. They tend to get stressed in a container and then open themselves to lots of problems. Perhaps something like Sarcococca, the Christmas box will give a wonderful scent around the festive season with little maintenance.

I have a reddish one called birthday wishes or something like that. I know it has birthday in the name. it has been doing well for the last 10 years. its in a large pot that gets sun in the morning until about 2pm.

Oh dear, now I've got to think this out again. My cousin will be 80 and her husband is no longer able to do very much, so I thought a patio rose would be an easy option for them and provide some colour near the house. You've clearly had success, SBG, but I'm thinking now about changing my idea to an easy care flowering shrub. Sarcocca is nice but I doubt they will be going outside much in the winter to appreciate the scent. A dwarf lilac? One of those multi buddleias? An azalea? Something that will not need a huge amount of care.

what about a hydrangea ? there are some lovely ones out there only care is that you need to water it a lot through the summer.

A decent self fertile skimmia is evergreen and has scented flowers in spring, good foliage through out the year, berries in the autumn and flower buds late autumn through winter.
alternatively what about a variegated evergreen Daphne.
both slow growing and in a suitably big pot will do well for years.

Azalea would be nice, although they're obviously not in flower at this time of year. Azalea, Skimmia and Daphne all do better out of full sun though. Skimmia fragrans is a male plant that has lots of scented white flowers earlier in the year - no berries though. Skimmia japonica 'Obsession' is a newer, self fertile variety that both flowers and produces berries - I don't know what it's like, never grown it.

Thanks everyone. Now I'm going to have a job to choose from these great ideas. I'll nip to a good garden centre and see which of them I can find and which looks like a good strong plant.

If there's room for a biggish pot Potentilla fruticosa is carefree and reliable and flowers all summer.