Queen of Hearts is one of the Kordes roses that shares a name with another Kordes rose, a hybrid tea. In contrast to the hybrid tea, which is a tall and sturdy rose bush in my garden, producing several flushes of florist-quality cupped blooms each year, the Queen of Hearts floribunda is a small and weak rose bush and is stingy with its flowers.

The merchandising photos of the rose show quartered blooms of a vivid orange blend, but mine has produced only blooms of pale salmon, verging on peach. It was originally marketed as one of the roses of Kordes' Fairy Tale line, but it stays quite small and never grows into a huge rose bush, as the other Fairy Tale roses commonly do. I must not have been the only one disappointed by the floribunda because it is virtually absent from commerce today and is not even offered by nurseries carrying all or most of the Fairy Tale line.

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