SWEET HONEY ® – honey-yellow bedding floribunda rose – KORmecaso
Floribunda production of SWEET HONEY ® gives nurseries a compact, bushy base that is easy to batch for container and bedding lines, with dense, glossy foliage supporting a consistently ornamental display. The even honey-yellow, subtly peach-toned blooms hold colour well, fading only slightly in strong sun, which helps maintain retail and landscape appeal across the sales and planting season. Good disease and winter tolerance reduce replacement pressure in nursery beds and downstream projects, while own-root propagation offers long-term stability, predictable regrowth and homogeneous stands in stock blocks. With a standard 2–3 L route and scope for larger landscape units, it suits UK nursery logistics and public-realm specifications, including sites where wind and winter exposure are typical in northern regions. Very double, self-cleaning flowers support efficient maintenance in retail networks and municipal schemes, and you can plan SWEET HONEY ® as a three-step development arc: roots in year one, framework in year two, and full ornamental value from year three. This rooted cutting format integrates smoothly into high-volume wholesale schedules, supporting reliable garden performance as a standard finished product across nursery and reseller programmes.
Usage options
Finished-product ideas
- Core 2–3 L floribunda bedding line – Own-root, compact, bush-trained plants in standard 2–3 L pots, focused on uniform honey-yellow display and reliable disease performance – target audience/channel: retail / reseller networks.
- Landscape 40–50 L feature shrubs – Upscaled, own-root units in 40–50 L containers for parks and institutional schemes, leveraging hardiness and dense foliage for stable, low-replacement plantings – target audience/channel: public-realm suppliers and landscape contractors.
- Thematic honey-yellow collection item – Curated batches for colour-themed or ADR-focused rose collections, grown via the standard container route with controlled maintenance – target audience/channel: show gardens and specialist nurseries.
- Private-label urban container series – Bush-trained floribunda units programmed for continuous flowering in standard pots, highlighting heat tolerance and compact habit – target audience/channel: integrators supplying branded urban and balcony lines.
- Wholesale colour-block bedding stock – High-volume, own-root propagation for bedding and park beds, capitalising on self-cleaning blooms and good disease resistance – target audience/channel: wholesalers and regional nursery networks.
Technical cultivar profile
| Parameter |
Data |
| Name and registration |
Floribunda bedding rose from the Bed rose commercial group; registered as KORmecaso, traded as SWEET HONEY ® Bedding rose KORmecaso, with American Rose Society exhibition name Sweet Honey. |
| Origin and breeding |
Bred by Tim-Hermann Kordes in Germany in 2004, with unknown parentage; introduced and initially distributed by W. Kordes’ Söhne in 2015, reflecting contemporary breeding standards for garden performance. |
| Awards and recognition |
Holds ADR status from 2015 and was named Rose of the Year in the United Kingdom in 2020, with further gold and other distinctions from international competitions in Baden-Baden, Belfast, Courtrai, Lyon and Paris. |
| Growth and structural characteristics |
Bushy, upright habit with dense, dark green, glossy foliage; plants reach about 85–115 cm in height and 55–85 cm spread, moderately thorny, forming compact bushes suitable for bedding and container applications. |
| Flower morphology |
Very double, high-centred, pointed-budded blooms of L size (approximately 2.75–3.95 inches), borne in corymbose clusters; petal count exceeds 40, with abundant remontant flowering that repeats strongly in the second flush. |
| Colour data and phenology |
Honey-yellow base with a subtle peachy hue; ARS code ab, RHS 22D outer and 23C inner petals; buds and newly opened flowers show warmer peach tones, with colour fading only slightly in strong sun and deepening in cooler conditions. |
| Fragrance and aroma |
Presents a light, sweet fragrance with a mild, restrained scent profile; primarily ornamental rather than fragrance-led, with very double blooms that prioritise visual impact over strong aromatic expression in garden and container settings. |
| Hip characteristics |
Hip set is generally slight due to the very double flowers; where formed, hips are spherical, orange-red, about 8–12 mm in diameter, adding discreet seasonal interest without being a dominant ornamental feature. |
| Resistance and winter hardiness |
Shows good general disease resistance, notably resistant to black spot and rust with moderate powdery mildew sensitivity; rated to approximately –23 to –21 °C (USDA 6a, RHS H7, Swedish zone 3), with good heat and drought tolerance. |
| Horticultural recommendations |
Suited to flowerbeds, parks, containers and urban green spaces; prefers moderate maintenance with regular pruning, feeding and pest monitoring, and is recommended as a bush-trained, compact plant on a standard container path with 2–3 L target pots. |
SWEET HONEY ® Bedding rose KORmecaso offers compact, bushy plants with reliable honey-yellow flowering and good disease performance on a predictable, regenerative own-root base; please feel free to contact us to align volumes and scheduling.
