What is a rose's potential?

As I was mentioning to a co-worker, potential is a loaded word. So many different circumstances can change the potential.
So what is the potential of a rose? This could relate to size of bloom, size of plant, disease resistance, and to some extent hardiness.
The hardiness is mostly influenced by genetics, but an argument could be made that a healthy rose can be hardier than a sick rose.

That is a  yellow Lady Banks rose, climbing a tree, in Sacramento. As you can see in that climate it has the potential to get big.  There are a few yellow Lady Banks roses here in Oregon that I have seen. The part of Oregon that I am in, the Willamette valley, is colder than Sacramento, so the potential in this climate of the Lady Banks to get that big is reduced.
A rose could potentially have big flowers, but if the plant is sick, stressed, or it is hot out, the plant most likely will not produce blooms that are up to it's potential.
So what is the potential of a rose? There are several things that can influence the answer.