Hopefully someone will chime in with more experience with this one as I just purchased it this year. I got it back in the beginning of June I think? The heat and it's youth so far have kept the flowers on the small side, but other than that they have been a really pretty deep pink that open up to a cream or light pink. A few have stayed pink and lighten with age. I've started it up my trellis just recently so I can't really say much about it's size. It's still pretty small.

It does have some black spot to it, but in my humidity and the rainy summer everything does, even those that should be resistant, so don't take that as it's prone to it.

Do I love it? So far it's on it's third flush which I think is pretty good seeing as it's just a baby and I've only had it about two months. I'd say it's going to be a really pretty bush in a year or so ;)

I have grown Harlekin for a few years now and I am kind of on the fence about it. It took a couple of years to get going but now it is a very vigorous rose. The growth habit is stiff and upright so I think it would be hard to train on a fence unless the fence was very tall. It takes hard pruning so it can be kept down to 6 feet but it has the potential to become a monster if you let it go. It has bright, dark pink edges which are definitely not red. It does get some blackspot here in damp Seattle but it is vigorous enough to replace the leaves that drop off. It can be unsightly though and will have bare legs because of the blackspot. In a climate with more blackspot pressure, it might defoliate. It responds well to spraying and occasional spraying of the base leaves can keep the blackspot under control. It is pretty much in constant bloom once it gets established.
But I do not love it. I just don't find the flowers to be all that pretty. They are just OK. I don't like the centers of the flowers and the flowers tend to have some brown on the edges. I consider it to be a background rose but I think it is disappointing when viewed close up.

Thanks for your responses.

It looks so pretty in pictures but you never know until you hear from someone who grows it.

I don't want a monster and with it being hard to train on a fence, I guess I'll look elsewhere.

Thanks, Hollie

Harlekin is one of my best roses. Healthy, deep green foliage,good repeat even in my garden which has to rely on rain for irrigation. I do train mine horizontally; it's certainly not as flexible as a rambler,but it's not uber-stiff. I wouldn't describe it as a monster either, but I have a very big garden so my standards might be different from other people's.I love the light, lemony perfume of the flowers; very particular and different scent from most roses. A great and beautiful rose, stunning when in full bloom! bart

mmmm. I don't grow it myself cos I am not too keen on this type but I have seen it grown in several gardens and am rapidly becoming a massive fan of Kordes roses. For sure, they are not always as romantically fulsome as many older garden roses...but on the other hand, they have produced some rather unique roses over the last few years (Jasmina, Pomponella, various Fairy Tale roses) which have the great (and ultimately most essential) virtue of being healthy and vigorous in difficult conditions (dry sandy soil with no extra irrigation). Bearing in mind the northern breeding of these roses (along with another favourite, Lens), they may not perform as well in the extended growing seasons of the US south since they do seem to need a recuperative dormancy period.

I agree with campanula on this one, being a massive fan of Kordes roses for my zone. I love Harlekin in the sense that it's trouble free, healthy, resolutely hardy enough to climb an arch in zone 5, and has interesting blooms. Most of these Kordes roses are a breath of fresh air to cold zone rose growers, since there are relatively few climbers that don't have significant winter dieback in this climate. However, it doesn't sound like it'd have the visual impact in what you're looking for in a warmer zone.

My Harlekin has a dark pink edge for the blooms, but I can always see a white base to it. I don't think it's particularly frequently blooming, even in my zone, and it would be fairly poor among roses for cutting I think. Among my Kordes picoteed climbers, I'd give Antique 89 the edge for blooming more often and in larger clusters, but the canes are pretty stiff on that one as well.

Cynthia

Thanks for the responses. It is very damp here from fog, so perhaps it wouldn't work.

The clincher is that some of you think it's not a pretty rose.

Hollie

I love kordes, too. This one was a bit of a disappointment.

To my eyes the bloom is pretty. This is a rose that my husband planted a long time ago. It has actually risen to above the roof of the shop and lives year after year without receiving summer water.

I am beginning to think that Kordes roses are very good here in my hot, dry garden in Tuscany, Italy.To me, Harlekin's flowers are beautiful,and the mass display it gives is fantastic. Laguna is another one that gets a high vote for the way it covers itself in blooms. Jasmina did, too, but it's in a difficult spot and just put out so much green growth this year that the blooms were kind of limp (I think it's still getting established). bart