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W. Kordes Söhne
(Put your Mouse's pointer
over the photos to see the caption)
The firm of W. Kordes Söhne has a long history of
producing roses. The founder, Wilhelm Kordes was born in
Holstein, Germany in 1865. At the age of 22 he began a
Nursery in Elmshorn, Germany as one that sold all kinds
of plants.
 After
a few years he abandoned most of the other plants he
grew in favour of roses. Later he was joined by his two
sons Wilhelm and Hermann.
The younger Wilhelm was the breeder and in the 1920s
after the firm had moved to Sparrieshoop Wilhelm turned
seriously to the art. His Father many years before had
told him the ideal rose would be a red “Mme. Caroline
Testout”. With singular focus he set about this task and
produced “Catherine Kordes” which is in my mind still
one of terrific red roses we have. This led to “Crimson
Glory”. From there he went on to produce many of the
best roses of his or any era including several that
future breeders built their lines on.
 The
Kordes firm is especially known for hardy roses and this
can also be traced back to Wilhelm. He began to make
crosses with Scotch Roses and from there came “Frűlingsgold”,
“Frűlingsmorgen” and then “Maigold”. Sam McGredy founded
his hand-painted roses on “Frűlingsmorgen”. From his
crosses with Sweet Briar roses he obtained “Fritz Nobis”
and the parent of many yellow hardy roses “Cläre
Grammerstorf”.
Perhaps Wilhelm’s most important contribution to the
future of roses is one not
very well known by the public. In the spring of 1941 he
sowed two seeds from the rose “Max Graf”, a rose
heretofore not known for producing hips. Proving
lightning can strike twice, one of the seedlings doubled
its chromosomes from fourteen to twenty-eight. What does
this mean? This means that this rose was now compatible
for breeding with modern roses. The rose was considered
a completely new species and we know it today simply as
“R. Kordesii”. This humble little rose besides being a
lovely
 garden
rose is the parent of roses such as “Dortmund” and many
other repeat flowering hardy roses we have today.
Wilhelm taught the next generation of the Kordes Family,
Reimer, Werner and Hermann, about the rose business and
they carried it forward. His son Reimer continued in his Father’s footsteps
with the breeding program. One of his first
roses is the mighty “Iceberg” proving he had learned
well. Reimer went on to produce “Mercedes”, “Peer Gynt”
and countless others.
Now in its fourth generation the Firm of W. Kördes Söhne
is in the capable hands of Reimer’s son Wilhelm. Their
roses are sold in over 30 countries and are extremely
popular in colder climates even though they do well
everywhere. Recently the firm has become extremely
active in the
German
ADR trials proving once again they are among the
 leaders
in giving us hardy, healthy and disease resistant roses.
I’ve known the Kordes’ roses for years but it wasn’t
until I was in Holland at
Westbroekpark that I truly began to realize how
stunning they were. Many of their new roses had not made
it to America but there
I saw dozens of them. When I found out Wilhelm was there
that day I approached him to ask if we might carry some
of their roses. To my great delight he agreed and I am
proud to say we obtained our Kordes license in 2004.
We will continue to offer roses from this great firm for
as long as Ashdown exists. To me they are a perfect
answer to everyone who doubts that roses can be grown by
anyone.
Click here to link directly to the
W. Kordes Sőhne Website
Click Here to preorder our Kordes Roses
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