I'm a little partial to Kordes reds, my guess it would be a good one. Although it is one I don't have. I noticed Palatine sold out of it this year, if that is any indication. I almost ordered one, but didn't. I know someone who has actually grown it would know better than I do, I'm just giving a biased answer, based on my overall experience with all Kordes roses, because they generally do well for me.

RU is out of that one too but the other nurseries I had contacted have never even heard of it. It looks like an interesting color and I'm curious about others experiences.

Thank you! Beautiful photo! Where did you find them? In what zone are you?

I apologize, Kelly, I wasn't paying close attention, you're inquiring about Queen of Hearts, I was thinking of Ace of Hearts. Queen of Hearts isn't listed on Palatine's website, my mistake,

Looks like a beautiful rose, love oldrosarian's picture.

They used to carry it, but it looks like maybe it was discontinued? Olsrosaeian's picture looks just like the ones on the kordes site...

I wanted to get this rose so much but was afraid it would not be black spot resistant enough. Roses Unlimited is the only place I know of that has it. I don't now about it's hardiness.

I got mine a few yrs ago from Palatine. It's been in a 16" pot the whole time. Hasn't been all that great of a rose. I mean, I like it, but it doesn't look quite like the other pics I've seen of it. Seems to have fewer petals, and different coloring. Maybe once I get it out of the pot it'll do better.

I garden in 7a PNW and I got mine from Palatine two years ago.

Be aware when you order that there are 2 Kordes Queen of Hearts: Korbreano and Korliolow. The first is QOH Freelander H/T, released 2005 which looks similar to Beth's pictures, and Korliolow is a floribunda (2008 aka Renmark's Rose) which looks like oldrosarian's photo. I have both, and find the floribunda by far the better of the two. The H/T is very stingy with blooms, and they have fewer petals. Melodye

Aha! I did not know there were two. Obviously mine is the Freelander one. So, apparently Palatine offered both at some time? Why do companies like Kordes do this? I mean, making two different roses with the same name, and almost the same color? That's ridiculous! It gets sooo confusing!

Kelly - for what it's worth, I have the Queen of Hearts Freelander in a zone 4 pocket of my yard and it's resolutely hardy. I think mine was from Roses Unlimited some years ago. It doesn't really bloom that often, but it doesn't blackspot much that I can tell and varies between cane hardy and root hardy in that spot.

Cynthia

I can only speak to the QOH floribunda/shrub Rose and not the Freelander HT. The shrub version was decently vigorous, threw a nice first flush and the blooms take on many changes in coloration depending on temps and time of year. However, repeat blooming was average and not particularly heavy and this variety was not as resistant to bs and mildew as some of the better new Kordes varieties. Winter cane hardiness was also just average.

It is a nice enough Rose if you must have this colour scheme in the garden, but It really is not one of the outstanding Kordes introductions. Brothers Grimm Fairytale is similar at times in bloom colour and is a superior Rose in basically every regard in my garden. Same applies to Garden Delight and Summer Sun. They all have a similar colour scheme to QOHFT during the bloom cycles.

It's even worse, there's three of them. 2 by Kordes and 1 by Lens in 1958. All of them are known by two names: the french Dame de Coeur and the english Queen of Hearts.

Beth - I think you have KORliolow Queen of Hearts as we never released KORbreano in North America and it does not look at all like your images. Kordes does use the name again and again but it does not use it in the same category of roses. Freelanders are cutflower varieties not suitable for garden use and not selected for garden use and there is some overlap in names but it is always named Queen of Hearts Freelander to distinguish it from the garden variety. The reason - well think about it- there must be over 50,000 roses that have been bred and named. There are only so many acceptable names to go around so repetition actually happens quite a bit and not just at Kordes. We try not to reuse a fancy name in garden roses if the older rose is still being sold in the market. But for all of the experts and rosarians the name that matters is the denomination (KORliolow) which is always the same the world over despite all the commercial name changes.

Queen of Hearts is a good rose that has never caught much market. I would never confuse it with Brothers Grimm or Garden Delight or Rose of Hope which are much stronger contrast bi-color roses, but then I do look at them a lot.. I do think color wise it is quite similar to Summer Sun with the orange with a golden yellow reverse. I prefer the quartered flower shape of Queen of Hearts over Summer Sun,
but both are quite nice. Summer Sun is a shrub but maintains a low
height and is a good bloom repeat. For all of those who mention thorns - Queen of Hearts is thorny!

Rose Whisperer -Interesting your experience with Summer Sun being more cold hardy than Queen of Hearts. Different than we found in our trials. As to disease resistant really quite good on blackspot better than Brothers Grimm not quite as good as Summer Sun. About the same on PM as the other Kordes varieties.

Queen of Hearts (KORliolow) -warm weather

Queen of Heats cooler weather

Summer Sun KORfocri

Brothers Grimm

Garden Delight

Rose of Hope

Chris, I was perhaps too general in comment when I said "same applies to Garden Delight and Summer Sun". For clarity, I meant it in terms that both of these roses have been better garden plants overall than QOHFT and they are both in the bi-colour colour range. I did not mean to imply that QOHFT has less cold resistance than Summer Sun or Garden Delight specifically. On that last quality, I have not seen any particular difference in any of the 3 varieties. They all die back close to the ground or snowline here. Brothers Grimm however, is certainly more cold cane hardy than these other 3 in my garden and will often have a foot or two of viable cane pending harshness of winter.

On Brothers Grimm specifically, it was a rather slow starter and establisher for me relative to many of my other Kordes roses and Fairytale series in particular. I actually almost removed it after year 3 as it was not reaching the size and vigour I expected. In year 4 it went crazy and sent up several long and thick new basal canes that if left to their own devices, would have been suitable as a small pillar Rose of 6 to 7ft in length. It hasn't looked back since and I now need to prune it to the size and shape I want it, just to keep it in bounds. At least in my garden, it has been totally immune to disease of any sort, despite in it's early years being next to a few roses defoliated by BS. This was not my experience with QOHFT and while it was by no means disease prone, it did get small amounts of BS and mildew late in season. I realize specific planting location may have a lot to do with this, but just sharing experience here. I could not imagine being without Brothers Grimm in the garden and I appreciate its many colour permutations as the blooms age.

My garden is largely newer Kordes varieties now, but I still have many Austins, Explorer roses and a few OGR's and obscure varieties mixed in. Roses that suffer badly from any form of disease are removed and generally given away or disposed of, but there are a few exceptions.

I was looking for information on queen of hearts korliolow as I really would like to try this one- such a unique color, but alas, I have not been able to find it in the states and was wondering if retailers had stopped selling it due to issues with growing or blooming. I have summer sun on order as well as many other kordes roses as their strong disease resistance is well documented. I have previously been obsessed with Austin roses and am curious about how well many of these newer kordes will do with our tropical mn winters...

I may have to add Bro Grimm... does anyone else have any enticing pictures or resources of where to purchase Q OH Korliolow?

Thanks!!

Rose Whisper,

Thanks for all the information - we really value the data from climates especially your climate. When we first introduced Brothers Grimm we had absolutely no reports of black spot and then we saw some reports of BS from the Midwest. I am guessing we hit another strain of black spot we had not seen before. It has always remained clean here. I do not worry too much about black spot showing up after the first of September if the plant has been clean all season. Some roses go dormant a bit faster than others and as they do the leaves begin to detach they do not keep the same vigor and protection.

I am glad to hear cane hardiness on Rose of Hope as it is one I have not tested on cold hardiness. Quite popular in USA - I think it is the huge bloom production and flushes are what drives the demand. Maybe it is also the bright clear yellow. Garden Delight while quite similar has smaller flowers but it is a plant that stays quite compact for us and has good continual blooming.

Where exactly are you located? It sounds like a really big rose garden. I would love to know more.

Well Chris, I beg to differ. I got my QOH from Palatine in 2008. I'm almost positive it was sold as QOH Freelander. I bought quite a few Freelander roses that yr as I recall. I'll have to go back and see if I can find a paper catalog, or maybe my invoice. I'm not sure whether they shipped me a catalog that yr or not. My rose doesn't look like KORliolow. It never has that many petals. If I am mistaken, and Palatine had sold the ones as KORliolow or QOH Fairytale, maybe somehow they possibly got a mismarked one, that's the Freelander version, and I ended up with it? I don't know. All I know is it doesn't look like the floribunda version, and it generally has only one bloom per stem. I think because it's still in a pot, that could be why it hasn't grown very tall. It stays under 3ft, so far. This spring I am hoping to get it put in the ground, and will see if it looks any different once it gets happy there.

Ya know what? I just looked under the listing on HMF for KORbreano, and they still list Palatine as carrying it under the name "QUEEN OF HEARTS FREELANDER." They do not list Palatine as a supplier under the KORliolow one. So... obviously they did carry the ht version.

Hi Beth,

Perhaps they did send it out. They did have it as a test rose so I cannot rule out the possibility it was somehow sent out but it was never reported as a sale. HMF relies on information from public sources which is not all that accurate on many items and I do know that Palatine is selling KORliolow and has been for some years. Your rose probably has not grown well because it is really not a good garden rose and we never introduced it as a cut flower either. I have a QHFT - write me at info@newflora and we can arrange something for you to have the right rose.

I found my Palatine invoice, and Beth's correct. I bought my Queen of Hearts at the end of 2007. It's a hybrid tea. Beth, put yours in the ground and stand back. It's one of the tallest, most vigorous roses in my garden.. It blooms quite often. The only drawback is that it's so tall that most of the blooms are 6 or 7 feet in the air. A few years later I bought the Queen of Hearts Fairytale rose from Palatine. It's much shorter and doesn't bloom as much as the hybrid tea does.

Palatine does not sell either of them anymore...

Where are you located Zuzu? Maybe it does better in cooler climates. And just maybe it will take off like a weed when I get it outta that dang pot. I had that happen to several roses, including FANTASIA MONDIALE. It was 3ft in the pot and now it's like 6ft in the ground!

And Chris, I appreciate the offer, but I actually prefer to have the HT one. The florrie is lovely, but I don't really have a place for it right now. Thanks tho! I wonder why you are finding that it wasn't sold here in North America, when it obviously was sold to Palatine somehow. You say that the Freelander series of roses are not good garden roses, but Palatine had a lot of them back in 2007-8. I have found most of them to be good roses. I got FANTASIA MONDIALE, MONDIALE, MASQUERADE, LAGUNA, BONANZA, SAFARI, CHARMANT, CINDERELLA, CHERRY & GOLDEN FREELANDER, GRAFIN SONJA, CORRIE, MAGMA, NICOLE, SAMBA and CARAMEL ANTIKE. I've only had issues with LAGUNA and BONANZA so far. LAGUNA is not a very pretty bloom and tends to be small. BONANZA has totally died back to the bud union on me twice. But the rest are really good garden roses.

Kelly, I assume you called or emailed RU? And they told you it was sold out? I mean they are still listing it on their website.

I'm in Sebastopol, CA, Beth, and I grow most of the same roses as you, although you always manage to stay 100 or 200 roses ahead of me on our HMF lists. lol.

Yes, I have several kordes on order from RU-Pat said they are out of this one....

Maybe next year.

Ah that's cool Zuzu! I've been to Sebastopol. Must be like 16-17yrs ago. Went to Vintage Gardens. Well, you might catch up to me. I can't order very many more roses. After I get done with the new beds, I won't have any more ground space with sun. And I'm trying to eliminate most of my pot ghettos. Sooo... I'll be slowing waaaay down.

Kelly that's too bad they're out of it. They had some roses I was going to order last yr but decided to wait til this yr.... but this yr they didn't have them! I was bummed about those. I had wanted to replace my dead MINT JULEP. Nobody has it anymore. And there was another one, but I don't remember which one. LOL So many roses....... so little brain cells anymore...

Beth, Mint Julep is still on the Roses Unlimited alphabetical list. Usually you can ask them to propagate a rose that is still on the alphabetical list for the following year. They do not charge extra to do so. They have done this for me several times.

Oh, really? I emailed them about it and they just said they didn't have it this yr. They might've mentioned custom propagating, I don't remember. I think I just figured it would cost a whole lot extra like at most other places. I thought I'd wait til next yr and see if they have it then. But, maybe I will ask them to propagate it for me. Now I gotta remember what the other one was... Thanks Plantloverkat!

They have it for 11.99 on collections ect. Never heard of the place, though....

That was mint julep.....

Chris,

That is interesting regarding Brothers Grimm and black spot. I do hope that strain does not become prevalent here.

As to here, my primary residence is about an hour north of Toronto. I also tend to a fairly large rose garden in the east coast a few times a year where I do all the planting and pruning.

i do not have Rose of Hope, so cannot speak to it at all. It does look pretty in your pics however.

Regarding the Freelander roses and availability at Palatine, the other posters are 100% correct that they were sold by Palatine for 2 seasons if memory serves me correct. A few were actually in the East Coast garden I mentioned, but not sure if any survived. I will have to check on that this year as the HT's have had some turn over. Palatine did stop selling the Freelanders about 5 or 6 years back now.

Wow thanks Kelly! It might just be worth it to try. Sorry for kinda hi-jacking your thread! How did you find that website anyway? Never heard of it before. They have some interesting stuff on there. It kinda reminds me of the old mail order company I used to order from back in the 80's and 90's (before the internet) called Colonial Garden Kitchens. They had some unusual roses for sale along with kitchen and household items. Waaay back then I ordered what roses they had, most of which were never really heard of anywhere else, and very well could actually be known by some other names. Altho Vintage Gardens got ahold of one of them that I ordered to replace the original back before they closed up. And that one was GREEN DYNASTY. CGK also had a striped one that I can't remember the name of.... something like CANDY CANE or something like that. Ended up being a climber, which I had no place for at the time, so I planted it at my mom's, but my dad wouldn't let her water anything, so it died. The only rose I still have from them is a lavender called BLUE WEDGEWOOD, which is very lovely. I have no idea if it is actually something else tho. They also had offered WORLD PEACE before it was more widely offered elsewhere. I often wondered what happened to them. I got a lot of neat kitchen gadgets and stuff. They were located somewhere back east and the roses came from some nursery in Pennsylvania. I think the name was Lakeland Nursery maybe. Something like that anyway.

Well, I think it would be worth trying. They're cheap enough! I have a feeling it'll be like Michigan Bulb or Gurney's and the roses will probably be all dried out. But if they are at least close to being alive, I could soak 'em for a week or so. Be worth it. Thanks for the heads up!! I'll let you know what the result is....

Oh... I got ROSE OF HOPE last fall from Chamblee's. Hasn't bloomed yet, but I'll be anxious to see it when it does bloom!!

No problem. I had not heard of Mint Julep before and just googled it. Collections Ect was one of the first things that popped up. I think my browser knows I have a weakness for mail order plants, lol! It still is cold here and I am waiting for it to warm up so I can get out in my gardens!!

Chris or Rose Whisperer- would either of you know the mature height for Queen of Hearts Fairy Tale Rose in zone 5b? I just got two from RU and need to know for placement.

Chris- both your New Flora site and HMF list it as 2 feet. This seems rather short. I would love her to stay that small but question whether she actually does.

Thanks for any info.

Sharon

I'm in zone 5 and my QOH Freelander is about 4' high at its mature height. It took a while to get there, so the 2' listing might be for a new plant. Given the discussion above, my QOH was also from Palatine, so it's the version of this rose Korbreano (the hybrid tea). It's tall but stingy with blooms as Melody describes above. If you have the floribunda version of QOH, which from Chris's comments may be more likely these days, the height and growth patterns may be different.
Sure wish Kordes (and other breeders) wouldn't reuse their own rose names for different plants.

Cynthia

Thanks Cynthia, this is QOH Fairy Tale Rose bought from RU this year. 2 feet seems way too short for a FF rose although Sisters FT is short and she's probably about 6 years old and is own root.

I think Queen of Hearts FT is the Floribunda not the HT. This one is Korliolow.... I ordered one too!! And I anticipate it staying rather small- but I'm in a different zone.

Thanks Kelly, this is the same one I ordered. The size seems too small though when compared to the other FT roses. Kordes lists it as 70cm which is 27 inches, New Flora lists it at 2 feet. 2 feet is great, I'm just wondering if it's accurate since none of their other roses are that small except for those listed as miniatures.

Sharon

Palatine lists it as 3 to 4 feet. Maybe that would be a more realistic expectation in your garden...

Thanks Kelly, I didn't even think to check Palatine's site. Good to know. That makes a difference on where she's being planted!

You are right about QOH Freelander it truly is not a good garden rose - sorry for all of you that bought it. Queen of Hearts Fairytale - the garden rose is much smaller than the other FT's and yes it is a floribunda. Here is Oregon it stays about 3-3.5 feet tale as an own root. Budded onto multiflora I would expect it to be taller. Grown in the warmer climates it is taller. Grown in the northern cooler climates yo might expect it to be closer to what Kordes shows on their website. Sharon you have own roots in a cooler climate so I would expect you should plan for it to be diminutive not more than 3 feet tall and maybe 2.5 feet wide.

On the comment of confusing names yes I understand. Kordes is one of the biggest breeders of cut flowers and typically since they do not trade in the same markets as garden roses there is little chance of confusion when they use the trademark names. These names are connected usually to a series name such as Freelander or Kordana which tells you a lot about what it is. Unfortunately the Freelanders went out into the garden market. I stopped this as fast as I could as I knew this would not be good for gardeners.