Scott,

Crimson Bouquet is a great rose. It's been around about 15 years now. It is a blooming machine here in W. PA. A small planting of a group of Crimson Bouquet in a public garden near me is always an eye catching sight, a show stopper.

By season's end it never gets over 3' tall here. The stems are like rebar, no bloom nodding, no cane arching. It's nice for cutting for the vase. The flowers come in clusters where the individual blooms are spaced perfectly apart from each other, with just the right amount of space between them so that each boom can be seen to its best advantage, no typical Kordes bloom crowding. I would call it candelabra style bloom presentation.

It is classed as a grandiflora, which I always interpret as a tall floribunda, like the growth habit of Queen Elizabeth. Crimson Bouquet is a floribunda as far as I am concerned, not tall enough to be a grandiflora. It may get to 5' tall as it is listed for you though.

You often find single blooms on CB, which some would class as a hybrid tea. The flower form is not classic exhibition hybrid tea though, more floribunda, less formal shaped than a typical HT bloom. The flowers last a long time on the bush, great staying power.

Early August is rose slump time here, not for Crimson Bouquet. It has no give in it.

The foliage is very attractive, healthy, glossy, dark green, and red-ish when first emerging. The flowers hold up in the heat very well. They appear to have thick petals. The shade of red is intense, glowing, no fading to purple or blue upon old age.

The bush form is well controlled, not leggy, nor one cane high/one cane low, almost hedge like in a group planting.

No fragrance to speak of is its only fault.

Disease resistance is very good, but not black spot proof. The garden I mentioned sprays all its roses religiously. Crimson Bouquets foliage therefore always looks pristine. Since it is a Kordes rose and did not win ADR status, I suspect it will get some black spot for that reason. It may not have been submitted for ADR testing by Kordes, but I doubt it wasn't.

Humidity it can handle very well. It is very humid here, but not as hot as NC. I expect it to handle heat very well, too.

The comments on Crimson Bouquet at Help Me Find Roses are extremely favorable. There are plenty of photos of it there, but truthfully, none do it justice. You have to see CB in real life to really appreciate it.

I believe it will do very well for you.

Moses

Moses, thank you so much for your comments. It sounds like a great rose that I must have. Are you describing the Crimson Bouquet by Kordes? I am hoping to get info on the new Crimson Bouquet by Weeks. Thanks!

Scott,

Kordes is a huge German rose breeding/marketing company. Crimson Bouquet was bred by them, and introduced into commerce world wide.

Weeks is the largest rose growing company in the USA. Not only do they sell roses they breed themselves under the direction of Christian Bedard, they grow and sell top roses from other rose breeders.

Weeks grows and markets Crimson Bouquet, the German rose bred by Kordes. Weeks did not breed CB. They propagate it and sell it to mail order and walk in nurseries throughout the USA.

Therefore, Crimson Bouquet was bred by Kordes in Germany, but is sold in the USA by Weeks Roses. Weeks keeps our USA nurseries supplied with Crimson Bouquet.

Moses

cltroses, the only only CB I could find on Week's site IS the Kordes rose. The registration name is "KORbeteilich" on Week's site, which is the Kordes rose, released in Europe in 1996, in the USA in 2000.

CB on Week's website

CB on HMF

Scott,

If you do a search in the Roses Forum Archives on Crimson Bouquet, you will find quite a few posts regarding it, with many favorable comments given by forum members, especially from those posters who garden in zones closer to yours in NC.

Moses

Here is Crimson Bouquet as she used to bloom in my garden--

Although not a very tall rose, her blooms are big and bold and totally enthralling!

I grew her about 10 years ago, so some details about her are fuzzy in my mind, but I seem to remember that she loved hot and humid weather.

Now the bad news--the reason I got rid of her is that she was a BS magnet--between flowering cycles--in my garden. I refuse to spray that much, so finally had to say farewell after about 3 years hopelessly hoping she would improve with maturity. As far as BS goes, she did not.

As always, she might perform differently in another region (I'm Zone 6, Kansas). At the very least, I would say that if you don't mind regular spraying, she is a gorgeous hot summer rose. Her red, by the way, stays red!

Kate

Thanks everyone for your help. Moses, thanks so much for the additional info you provided. I love Kordes roses and have grown quite a few over the years. I think what is threw me off is the Witherspoon site is calling their Crimson Bouquet a Hybrid Tea, not a Grandiflora like the Kordes rose, so I thought it was a new introduction using the same name. Thanks very much for clarifying for me. Scott

Scott,

I have found that cluster bloomers, floribundas and gradifloras, make generous clusters for their first spring flush. Thereafter, until season's end, the clusters have fewer blooms per cluster. Some varieties even send single, hybrid tea type, bloom stems up more frequently than multiple bloom clusters as the growing season moves along. These hybrid tea "wanna' be roses" often have small clusters, 4 or less blooms per cluster, even at the spring flush.

Essentially, these variable varieties are behaving like hybrid teas most of the season. Perhaps that is why Witherspoon is calling CB a hybrid tea, because of its majority behavior during the growing season.

According to the protocol of roses being registered for exhibition purposes under the ARS auspices, whatever class: hybrid tea, floribunda, etc., the breeder decides his rose is, that is the official class it is registered under, and what class that specific rose is shown in at ARS sanctioned shows. The breeder is given this consideration because of being the rose's "parent," so to say.

Moses

It was great here! CB has a bright crimson red coloring, nice leaves, is very heat tolerant and a blooming machine! If my current garden encompassed the "hot bright colors" I would definitely grow it again.

I had CB when I lived in California and I add my praise of this excellent rose to what others have said. I don't know about hardiness, but it seems to be a rose which flourishes almost everywhere.

I had Crimson Bouquet here for a long time, but it quit on me after last spring's hard freeze. It was an okay rose here, but not spectacular. The story was quite different when I saw it in the Woodland Park rose garden in Seattle, a much different climate. Crimson Bouquet was absolutely beautiful out there. It likes somewhat cooler, more moderate temperatures and some marine air influence.

Stephanie,

It appears that Heirloom Roses is listing Crimson Bouquet as currently in stock. It's 20% off now, at $40.00.

Moses.