W. Kordes' sons

W. Kordes' Sons is a family business specializing in rose growing in Klein Offenseth-Sparrieshoop in the Pinneberg district in Schleswig-Holstein . It is one of the most important rose growers in the world and has produced a large number of well-known rose varieties. The company has around 150 employees and sells more than two million rose plants annually in retail and wholesale worldwide. Every year around 50,000 new cut rose hybrids and around 30,000 garden rose hybrids are tried out, of which only four to six varieties are ready for the market after a test period of eight or ten years.

history

Memorial stone for Wilhelm Kordes, the founder of the company

Wilhelm Kordes I (born December 10, 1865 in Elmshorn; † August 20, 1935) founded his art and commercial gardening business in Elmshorn on October 1, 1887 and soon specialized in growing roses for park landscapes. Soon afterwards he bought land in Klein Offenseth-Sparrieshoop and moved his business.

The rose varieties bred by Wilhelm Kordes I are large, leafy and robust. Through a cross between R. wichurana, originally native to East Asia, and R. rugosa , native to Japan , he was able to breed R. kordesii , which thanks to its robustness also withstood the harsh climate in the north. Rose varieties such as Dortmund and Heidelberg were later developed from it.

Wilhelm Kordes II (born March 30, 1891 in Elmshorn; † November 11, 1976) and his brother Hermann (1893–1963) renamed the rose breeding company Wilhelm Kordes' sons and made it world famous. Wilhelm Kordes II., Who created varieties like Dortmund and Crimson Glory , is considered the most important rose breeder of the 20th century. He was after the First World War, interned on the Isle of Man and dealt there with the genetics of Mendel . He tried to apply the knowledge he acquired in the process of growing roses and to expand it further. In general he strived to breed varieties that were as hardy as possible.

From 1920 he concentrated entirely on growing roses and left the company management to his brother Hermann. By the mid-1930s, the company had grown to a considerable size. His greatest commercial success was the Rose Crimson Glory , which was created in 1935 by crossing several varieties.

Wilhelm Kordes II was also very involved in the introduction of the ADR test (General German Rose Novelty Test ), which was founded in 1950 by rose breeders in the Association of German Tree Nurseries .

From 1955, his son Reimer Kordes (* February 19, 1922 - February 3, 1997) led the company, since 1977 its son Wilhelm Kordes III. (* November 30, 1953; † January 22, 2016) together with Bernd Helms-Kordes (* July 27, 1948; † August 27, 2013) and Tim H. Kordes (* 1965).

Since 2016 the current management consists of Tim H. Kordes, Wilhelm-Alexander Kordes (born August 1, 1984) and John Vincent Kordes (born July 26, 1975).

Thomas Proll has been the breeding manager for the development of new garden roses since 1996.

sorts

The “Snow White” variety was named World Rose in 1983 . In 2005 "Aprikola" won the title of "The Hague Golden Rose".

The following table lists a selection of the most famous rose varieties grown by the company.

variety	Habit	colour	year	ADR approval
Alchemist	shrub	apricot colored	1956
Angela	shrub	carmine pink	1984
Apricot	Floribunda rose	yellow-orange to apricot-colored	2001	2001
Atomic bomb	Shrub rose	orange to scarlet	1953	1952
Ave Maria	Hybrid tea	strong salmon orange	1981
Bad Birnbach	Floribunda rose, small shrub	carmine pink	2000	2000
Bad Neuenahr		medium red	1958
Bad Wörishofen (Pink Emely)	Floribunda rose, small shrub	carmine pink	2005	2003
Bajazzo	Climbing rose	dark pink	2001	2010
Bella Rosa	Floribunda rose	strong pink	1982
Berlin	shrub	red	1949
Berolina	Hybrid tea	lemon yellow	1986
Black boy	shrub	dark red	1958
Blooming miracle	Floribunda rose	light pink to salmon pink	1995	1994
Bonanza	shrub	golden yellow, edge coppery	1983	1984
Burghausen	shrub	bright blood red	1991	1989
Charming	Dwarf rose	strong pink	1999	2004
Crimson Glory	Hybrid tea	dark red	1935
diamond	Floribunda rose, small shrub	White	2001	2002
Cathedral city of Fulda	Floribunda	vermilion	1994
Dortmund	Climbing rose	carmine-tinged blood-red, eyes white	1955	1954
Scent Magic 84	Hybrid tea	dark red	1984
Dusterlohe	Climbing rose	white / pink	1931
Eliza	Hybrid tea	pink to silvery pink	2004	2005
Elmshorn	shrub	cherry red	1951
Elveshörn	shrub	bright red	1985
Escimo	Small shrub	bright white	2006	2006
Eve	shrub	cherry colored	1933
Erfurt	Shrub, musk hybrid	pink, white-yellowish background	1939
Eutin	shrub	cherry colored	1940
Felicitas	shrub	dark pink	1998	1996
Flame dance	Shrub rose	blood red	1955	1952
Florentina	Hybrid tea	blood red	1973	1974
Fortuna	Floribunda rose, small shrub	dark pink	2002	2002
Freising Dawn	shrub	orange yellow	1988
Fritz Nobis	shrub	bright pink	1940
Beginning of spring	shrub	bright yellow	1950
Spring gold	shrub	muted yellow	1937
Spring morning	shrub	pink-yellow	1931
Gardener's delight	Small shrub, floribunda rose	bright red	2001	2001
Garden friend	Shrub rose	dark pink	2001	2013
Grimm brothers	Floribunda rose	orange-red inside, peach-colored outside	2002	2002
Yellow Angel	Floribunda rose	bright yellow	2002	2004
Gold bush	shrub	copper colored	1954
Golden gate	Climbing rose	bright yellow	2005	2006
Gold rush	Floribunda rose	yellow	1961
Grande Amore	Hybrid tea	bright dark red	2004	2005
Hamburg	shrub	dark red	1935
Heidelberg	Hybrid tea	carmine	1959
brownie	Floribunda rose	bright blood red	1983
Ilse Krohn superior	shrub	bright creamy white	1964
Innocencia	Small shrub, floribunda rose	bright white	2003	2004
Juanita	Small shrub	pink, carmine pink	2007	2006
Karl Forster	shrub	White	1931
Karl Herbst	Hybrid tea	carmine	1950
tot	Small shrub, ground cover	carmine pink	1997	2004
Cologne Carnival	Floribunda rose	lilac to lavender	1964
Queen of the Roses	Hybrid tea	inside salmon orange, outside yellow-pink	1964	1964
Korelasting (Linderhof)	shrub	bright pink, yellow center	1999
cosmos	Floribunda	creamy white	2006	2007
Leipzig	shrub	scarlet	1939
Leverkusen	Climbing rose	light yellow	1954
Queen of light Lucia	shrub	strong lemon yellow	1966	1968
Lilli Marleen	Floribunda rose	dark red	1959
Lions rose	Floribunda rose	creamy white	2002	2002
Louis Rödiger	Climbing rose	pale orange to orange	1935
magenta	shrub	dark pink	1954
Maigold	shrub	yellow	1952
Manita	Climbing rose	pink, yellow eye	1998	1998
Marie-Luise Marjan	Tea hybrids	white, pale pink	1999
Marlena	Floribunda rose	dark blood red	1964	1964
Maxi Vita	Floribunda rose, small shrub	dark pink, yellow-orange flower base	2001	2001
meteor	Floribunda rose	scarlet	1959	1960
neon	Floribunda rose, small shrub	carmine pink	2001	2001
Novalis	Floribunda rose, fairytale rose	lavender	2010	2013
Nymphenburg	shrub	light pink	1954
Palm Garden Frankfurt	Small shrub	carmine pink	1988	1992
Pepita	Dwarf rose	bright carmine pink	2004	2004
petticoat	Floribunda rose	white, middle apricot	2004	2004
Pink Bassino	Small shrub	pink	1995	1993
Pomponella	Floribunda rose, small shrub	strong pink	2005	2006
Postillion	shrub	yellow	1998	1996
Prominent	Floribunda rose	Orange red	1971	1971
Robber barons	Rambler	light pink	1936
Rosanna	Climbing rose	orange pink	2002
Uetersen Rosarium	Climbing rose	pink	1977
Rose Professor Sieber	Floribunda rose	pink	1997	1996
Rose Countess Marie Henriette	Floribunda rose	pink	2003	2015
Rosenresli	Small shrub, shrub	salmon pink	1986	1984
Red Corsair	Shrub, small shrub	velvety dark red	2004	2005
Rotilia	Floribunda rose, small shrub	dark pink	2000	2002
Rugelda	shrub	lemon yellow	1989	1992
Sangerhausen	Small shrub	dark pink	1938
Sangerhausen anniversary rose	Floribundarosa	apricot	2003
Scarlet glow		scarlet	1952
Snow white	shrub	White	1958	1960 (until 2004)
Sebastian Kneipp	shrub	creamy white	1997
Summer evening	Small shrub, ground cover	bright red	1995	1996
Summer wind	Ground cover, floribunda rose	pure pink	1985	1987
Sun rose	Miniature rose, ground cover	white, yellow eye	2005	2003
Sparrieshoop	Shrub rose	pink	1953
St. Pauli		pink-yellow	1958
Sunny Rose	Small shrub, ground cover	bright yellow, light yellow	2001	2004
Sweet honey	Floribundarosa	apricot colored	2004	2014
Sylvia	Hybrid tea	pink	1978	1977
sympathy	Climbing rose	deep scarlet	1964	1966
Tatiana	Hybrid tea	dark red	1970
Reverie	bush	lobster-colored, salmon orange	1974
UNICEF rose	Floribunda rose, small shrub	bright pink	2007	2005
Walsrode bird park	shrub	light pink	1988	1989
Westerland	shrub	orange to apricot, apricot-colored	1969	1974
Walter Schultheis
Uetersen's rose queen	shrub	orange to medium red	2009
Uetersen's rose princess	shrub	light pink	2009
Ulm Minster	shrub	blood red	1982