Here are the growing instructions for the Kordes Freelander roses that I got from Rahel at Palatine. Unfortunately for me I didn't get them until after I had already shovel pruned the Masquerade and Magma Freelanders that I attempted to grow a few years back. I think these will definitely be an asset to getting these roses off to the proper start and thus make them much better roses in your garden.

Verbatim:

"Here are some establishing recommendations for outdoor cut roses.

Plant in rows 1 1/2 to two feet apart. Row to row depends on equipment (tractors, sprayers etc.).

Graft union should be 1-2 inches below ground.

Prune that twelve buds remain (three canes with four buds each of four canes with three buds each).

Hill them after planting and thorough watering so that the sun cannot dry them out. One week later unhill again.

Install a drip system if possible at all. A fertilizer injection system is also a good idea since your plants can be fertilized through the water when necessary. Due to the heavy removal of stems later on the plants will need excellent nutrition.

Mulch is always a good idea for weed control. Residual herbicides can be applied; I do not recommend them in the first season. Materials are Treflan; Simazine will work but might set back stem production.

Let your plants grow until the first buds appear and cut off the head (terminal bud)and let the shoot stand for two weeks. New shoots will quickly appear and should be treated the same way. With this practice we are creating energy within the plant without removing leaves (which are the fatory that creates the energy for later heavy production). The "headles" stems can be removed after they have served their duty and make room for the actual flowering stems. After six weeks or so three basal (near ground) shoots will develop and can be left standing to bloom and harvest. At the developing stage all weak growth should be cut out.

During heavy flower production all the weak growth will be retained and pinned down horizontally to stay active in photosynthesis. All good strong shoots will then be retained and the flowers harvested.

Once the roses have been harvested make sure to cool the flowers down right away after cutting."

So, that is it. I hope these instructions help those of you who have Freelanders ordered or already growing and are not pleasing you with their vigor and blooming prowess. I know from personally growing Masquerade and Magma Freelander roses unsuccessfully that conventional growing techniques that work on my other roses don't seem to be sufficient to successfully grow these Freelander roses.

My Freelander roses were both excellent bareroot specimens as Palatine is so known for supplying their customers. However it was all downhill from there.

My Masquerade Freelander grew like a monster with 5 or 6 basal canes growing vigorously straight up to about 7' tall but they had no lateral stems/canes at all so the blooming was very limited to only on the very ends of the canes much as a climbing rose will do. If you don't have some horizontal growing lateral stems you will not get copious blooming on your roses, plain and simple. And, that does not make for a happy rosarian at all if you are anything like me!! I want flowers!

Converseley, with the Magma Freelander rose I grew, this plant never grew vigorously after breaking dormancy and I don't believe it ever got over 2' tall the whole three years I had it. So, with no real growth and definitely no laterals, I very rarely got any blooms at all on Magma except for just a few on the very ends of the canes again. The blooms I did get were small, waxy-looking, scentless, and muddle colored and formed. Just not pretty at all and very disappointing.

I think this method of starting out a rose may also be beneficial for some other roses I have grown. Lynn Anderson is another rose that for me grew straight up and tall on 5 basal canes and had no lateral growth whatsoever so I very rarely got any blooms at all and the ones I did get-though beautiful of form and color-were about the size of a small mini-flora which was also very disappointing. I have seen many photos of LA grown by others that have been beautiful blooms of decent though not large size, which is typical of the variety I think. Lynn Anderson was another rose that I shovel pruned because of this problem of no lateral growth and few blooms. But, now that I see these recommendations, I am definitely going to give this one as well as the two Freelanders I eventually shovel pruned another chance in my garden just to see how they do when grown this way. Lynn Anderson has proven to be a good exhibition rose for many and also a popular breeding rose for hybridyzers though I am not sure I really want to pass along roses that require this type of special growing techniques to be successful in the garden. It is more for curiosity's sake to see if I can do it than anything else.

I love a challenge!!

Good luck with these and post to let us here know how your Freelander roses do trying these instructions growing them compared to the way you would normally do your roses.

Thanks so much,

John