Rose 'Lili Marlene' - Floribunda Rose (Also known as 'Lilli Marleen' or 'KORlima')
A magnificent classic floribunda rose that produces spectacular clusters of semi-double blooms in rich crimson-red with exceptional weather resistance, outstanding disease tolerance, and continuous flowering performance from June through to September, making it one of the finest red roses for traditional and contemporary gardens.
Headlines
- Plant Type: Hardy deciduous floribunda rose
- Eventual Height: 90cm
- Eventual Spread: 60cm
- Flowering Period: June to September
- Flower Colour: Rich crimson-red with deeper centre
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -20 to -15 degrees Celsius (RHS hardiness rating H6)
- Growth Habit: Compact, vigorous, well-branched
- Flower Type: Semi-double blooms with distinctive pointed black buds
- Awards: Bred by renowned Kordes Roses
Overview
Rose 'Lili Marlene' stands as one of the finest red floribunda roses ever developed, delivering magnificent crimson-red blooms with exceptional reliability and outstanding garden performance for over 60 years. This distinguished variety produces spectacular clusters of semi-double flowers that emerge from distinctive pointed black buds, creating a dramatic display of rich cabernet-red colour that deepens towards the centre of each bloom. The semi-glossy green foliage provides excellent contrast to the vibrant red blooms, whilst the light fragrance adds subtle garden ambience. With outstanding disease resistance, particularly tolerant of rain and adverse weather conditions, and excellent repeat flowering from June through to September, 'Lili Marlene' represents one of the most reliable and rewarding red roses for both traditional cottage gardens and contemporary garden applications.
Key Features
The outstanding appeal of 'Lili Marlene' lies in its abundant clusters of beautifully structured, semi-double blooms that showcase rich crimson-red colouring with exceptional colour retention and weather resistance. Each flower displays upward-facing rosettes with distinctive pointed black buds that open to reveal luxurious semi-double blooms in cabernet-red, with the colour deepening towards the centre of each bloom to enhance texture and depth. The flowers are produced in generous clusters that create substantial visual impact with their abundant display of intense red colour. The semi-double form combines classic rose elegance with modern garden performance, whilst the light fragrance provides pleasant garden atmosphere. The exceptional weather tolerance ensures blooms maintain their beauty and colour even in challenging conditions, making this rose particularly suitable for exposed positions.
Growth Characteristics
This floribunda rose displays a naturally compact, vigorous growth habit that makes it exceptionally suitable for modern garden applications and formal displays. The compact yet vigorous-growing nature ensures reliable flowering whilst maintaining an attractive, manageable size perfect for contemporary gardens and traditional borders. The well-branched growth habit makes it ideal for beds, borders, low hedging, or container cultivation where its spectacular beauty can be fully appreciated. The strong stems provide excellent support for the abundant flower clusters, making this variety particularly suitable for formal garden applications and mass plantings.
Flowering Performance
From June through to September, 'Lili Marlene' delivers an exceptional flowering display that continues consistently throughout the extended growing season. The plant produces magnificent semi-double blooms held in generous clusters, creating substantial visual impact with excellent repeat flowering that brightens garden spaces for months on end. The flowers showcase rich crimson-red colouring with deeper cabernet tones at the centre, creating ongoing visual interest and dramatic elegance. The excellent repeat-flowering nature ensures continuous colour throughout the growing season, with the abundant blooms providing a spectacular display that captures attention with its intense red colour and reliable performance. The extended flowering period makes this rose invaluable for maintaining consistent garden interest from early summer through to early autumn.
Growing Conditions
'Lili Marlene' thrives in full sun positions with fertile, humus-rich, moist but well-drained soil, requiring at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily for optimal flowering performance and colour development. The rose adapts well to various soil types including chalky, clay, loamy, and sandy conditions, providing adequate drainage is maintained. For best results, plant in fertile, well-drained soil that has been improved with organic matter, ensuring consistent moisture throughout the growing season. The rose benefits from good air circulation around the foliage and performs well in various exposures, tolerating both exposed and sheltered conditions. This adaptable variety succeeds in a wide range of garden situations whilst maintaining its exceptional flowering performance and vibrant colour.
Hardiness and Disease Resistance
This rose demonstrates exceptional hardiness suitable for growing throughout the UK, being fully hardy (H6 rating) and showing excellent tolerance of typical British weather conditions. One of the most notable features of 'Lili Marlene' is its outstanding disease resistance, particularly to black spot and mildew, which significantly reduces maintenance requirements and ensures healthy growth throughout the season. The healthy, semi-glossy green foliage remains attractive and vigorous, with excellent natural resistance to common rose diseases. This exceptional disease resistance and weather tolerance makes it an excellent choice for organic gardening approaches and eliminates the need for chemical interventions, making it particularly suitable for busy gardeners seeking low-maintenance excellence.
Care and Maintenance
'Lili Marlene' requires minimal maintenance to maintain optimal health and flowering performance, making it ideal for busy gardeners and beginners. Apply a balanced rose fertiliser and mulch in late winter or early spring, followed by another application of fertiliser in early summer to support continuous flowering. Regular watering during dry periods, particularly in the first year after planting, helps establish strong root systems. The excellent disease resistance means this variety requires minimal intervention, making it an easy-care option. Light deadheading encourages continued flowering, whilst annual pruning in late winter maintains the compact shape and promotes vigorous new growth for optimal flowering performance.
Garden Applications
'Lili Marlene' excels in formal and informal garden settings where its continuous crimson-red flowering provides exceptional versatility and dramatic visual impact. The compact vigorous growth habit makes it ideal for beds, borders, low hedging, and formal displays where its reliable performance can be appreciated. The rich red flowers suit both contemporary and traditional garden settings perfectly, creating vibrant displays that provide stunning focal points and complement various colour schemes. The rose works beautifully in massed plantings, creating impressive displays that provide months of continuous intense colour. The manageable size and exceptional reliability make it particularly suitable for entrance plantings, foundation gardens, cottage gardens, and anywhere consistent dramatic colour is required.
Container Growing
The compact growth habit and excellent disease resistance make 'Lili Marlene' exceptionally well-suited to container cultivation for patios, balconies, and small gardens. The rose thrives in large containers on terraces and areas where soil conditions are challenging, making it perfect for urban gardening applications and patio displays. Choose a container at least 50cm wide and deep with adequate drainage holes, and use high-quality multipurpose compost enriched with slow-release fertiliser. Container-grown specimens require more frequent watering and feeding than those planted in the ground, but the compact habit means they remain manageable whilst delivering exceptional flowering performance and vibrant colour throughout the season.
Seasonal Interest
Throughout the growing season, 'Lili Marlene' provides continuous interest that evolves beautifully with the months. Spring brings the emergence of fresh, semi-glossy green foliage and the distinctive pointed black buds, building anticipation for the main flowering display. The exceptional flowering season from June to September ensures months of rich crimson-red colour, with the abundant blooms creating vibrant displays that showcase remarkable consistency and colour retention. The healthy foliage remains attractive throughout the season, providing an excellent backdrop for the dramatic red flowers. Even in winter, the strong branching structure provides architectural interest whilst promising another year of spectacular flowering.
Fragrance Profile
'Lili Marlene' features a light, subtle fragrance that provides pleasant garden ambience without overwhelming the visual display, allowing the spectacular colour to take centre stage. The gentle fragrance enhances the garden experience whilst remaining subtle enough to complement other fragrant plants. This makes it particularly suitable for mixed plantings and areas where the focus is on visual beauty and dramatic colour impact rather than intense fragrance. The delicate scent adds to the overall appeal without dominating the garden atmosphere.
Companion Planting
The rich crimson-red colours of 'Lili Marlene' provide exceptional opportunities for companion planting with a wide range of garden plants and striking colour schemes. The intense red blooms work beautifully with white and cream flowers, creating dramatic, high-contrast displays that highlight both plants. The rose pairs exceptionally well with silver and grey foliage plants, creating sophisticated combinations that enhance the red colour. Blue and purple flowers create stunning complementary displays, whilst yellow flowers provide vibrant, energetic combinations. The compact habit makes it suitable for planting with herbs, perennials, and other roses, creating layered gardens that provide continuous interest throughout the growing season.
Award Recognition and Heritage
'Lili Marlene' represents the exceptional breeding excellence of Kordes Roses, one of Germany's most prestigious rose breeding houses, demonstrating outstanding garden performance and enduring appeal. Bred by the renowned Kordes nursery and introduced in the 1950s, this variety represents over 60 years of proven garden excellence worldwide. The variety demonstrates the successful integration of intense colour with outstanding disease resistance and weather tolerance, creating a rose that satisfies both traditional and contemporary gardening needs. This heritage brings unique characteristics including exceptional colour intensity, reliable flowering, and outstanding garden adaptability that sets this variety apart from many other red roses.
Heritage and Innovation
Bred by Reimer Kordes and representing decades of rose breeding excellence, 'Lili Marlene' demonstrates the successful development of intense red colour combined with outstanding garden performance and disease resistance. The variety represents classic Kordes breeding that successfully integrated dramatic colour with modern garden reliability, creating a rose that satisfies both traditional cottage garden and contemporary gardening needs. This breeding excellence brings characteristics including exceptional colour retention, reliable repeat flowering, and outstanding weather tolerance that sets this variety apart from many other roses.
Weather Tolerance
One of the most appreciated features of 'Lili Marlene' is its exceptional tolerance of rain and adverse weather conditions, ensuring that the beautiful semi-double blooms maintain their form and colour even in challenging conditions. This characteristic makes the rose particularly suitable for exposed positions and areas with variable weather patterns, where bloom quality and longevity are important. The weather-resistant flowers continue to provide garden beauty throughout varying seasonal conditions whilst maintaining their rich crimson-red colour and attractive form.
Distinctive Buds
The exceptional pointed black buds of 'Lili Marlene' provide additional garden interest even before the flowers open, creating dramatic contrast against the green foliage and adding anticipation to the flowering display. This unique characteristic provides ongoing visual interest and ensures that the rose offers beauty aspects throughout its flowering cycle. The distinctive buds make it particularly suitable for situations where garden interest and dramatic colour development are required throughout the growing season.
Why Choose 'Lili Marlene'?
Rose 'Lili Marlene' represents the perfect combination of classic breeding excellence, exceptional reliability, and outstanding dramatic beauty. The abundant clusters of rich crimson-red semi-double blooms provide continuous flowering displays from June through to September, whilst the excellent disease resistance and weather tolerance ensure healthy growth with minimal maintenance. The compact, vigorous growth habit makes it suitable for gardens of all sizes, from formal beds to container cultivation. Whether grown for its spectacular unfading red blooms, exceptional weather resistance, or as a time-tested Kordes classic, this outstanding rose offers exceptional value that will provide years of gardening pleasure and dependable dramatic colour in any garden setting.
Reasons to Buy Roses from Jacksons Nurseries
(1) ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot
Buy with confidence from the only online rose grower rated ‘Excellent’ 4.9* on Trustpilot. We have been a trusted supplier of roses for 3 generations. We take pride in growing our own roses in the field before potting them up, allowing for meticulous quality control to sale.
(2) Best Prices Guaranteed – Direct from the Grower
Save £££s by buying direct from a grower you can trust. We’ve already price checked all of our roses against competitors so you don’t have to. We are so confident we offer the best value, if you find a rose of the same type and grade elsewhere, we’ll beat it by 10%.
(3) 12 Month Plants Guarantee
We offer a 12 month guarantee on every plant that you buy from us that we have classified as Fully Hardy. If a plant you've bought from us fails in the first year, we will either replace it or refund you. See our satisfaction guarantee page for more details and conditions.
(4) Third generation family-owned nursery specialising in roses
Jackson’s Nurseries is a 3rd generation family owned business which has been growing roses for over 60 years. Roses have always been our specialty, as you can see from the colourful array of blooms in the background to the old family photo below. Today, we offer over 200 different varieties of floribundas, hybrid teas, patio, shrub and David Austin roses. Our roses are initially grown in the field before being potted up for website dispatch.
(5) Grown at altitude to produce strong, healthy plants
Our North Staffordshire nursery is situated at 250 metres above sea level, producing strong, hardy plants that will thrive in your garden. Our nursery sits on clay, so you can be sure our roses can handle heavy soil too.
(6) Help & Advice and Aftercare
We are help to help you with any help and advice you need in choosing, planting and growing your roses before, during and after your purchase from us. The help and advice section of our website has extensive information, see below some examples of articles you may find useful:
- Different types of roses and what they each mean
- Guide to climbing roses
- Guide to floribunda roses
- Guide to hybrid tea roses
- How to plant a climbing rose
- How to grow hybrid tea roses
How our roses are supplied through the seasons
All our roses are cultivated in an open field and are carefully dug up when the weather is optimal, typically in October or November. While other nurseries supply roses bare root, once our field-grown roses have been potted up we supply them freshly potted. This better protects the roots and helps keep them moist in transit, ensuring your roses arrive as healthy as when they left our nursery. So don’t be alarmed if the compost comes away from the roots when you remove them from the pot.
The roses can remain in their pots over the winter, as long as they are properly watered and fed, but it's best to plant them out as soon as possible. If you do plant them straight away make sure the planting mix is prepared first, hold the root close to the top of the hole as you tip the pot upside down and try to keep as much compost as possible from falling away. They will already be pruned, so no additional pruning is needed except for trimming any dead tips. Regular pruning can start in late winter, the year after planting.
Rose Types
Hybrid Tea Roses (HT)
Hybrid Tea roses are probably the most popular group of roses, available in both bush and standard form they have long flower stems and shapely blooms. Blooms are typically medium to large in size, with many petals which form a distinct central cone.
Floribunda Roses (FL)
Floribunda roses bears its flowers in clusters or trusses, with several blooms open at time in each truss. A popular choice the Floribunda rose group is unrivalled for colour, reliability and longevity as a bedding display however the flower form in generally inferior to the Hybrid Tea.
Patio Roses (PATIO)
Patio roses were introduced in the 1980’s and the group now contains several popular varieties. Generally low-growing roses that were once grouped with the Floribuna group but have now been put in their own group of compact versions. Usually growing about 50cm high they make excellent plants for patio containers or at the front of borders.
Climbing Roses (CLM)
Climbing roses as the name suggests are the perfect choice for covering a wall or screen. Often grouped together with Ramblers, Climbers tend to have stiffer stems, larger flowers but smaller trusses than Ramblers.
Rambling Roses (RAM)
Rambling roses are often grouped with Climbing Roses but the ramblers tend to have a more pliable stems that can be used to run along the soil to use as groundcover or can be used to make weeping standards.
Miniature Roses (MINI)
Miniature roses have increased in popularity in recent years due to their versatility, even grown indoors as temporary pot plants that grow to a maximum height of 40cm. An ideal choice for planting in tubs, edging beds and rockeries.
English Roses (ENG)
Often referred to as Austin or David Austin Roses, English roses are hybrids of old English roses and more modern varieties bread by David Austin to provide the best of both, mixing old rose shapes and scents with more modern colour range, compact habits and repeat flowering.
Planting Advice
Roses like a generous root space, so dig a deep hole approximately twice as wide as the current root system, preferably adding composted organic matter to the soil. Never plant into frozen soil – in winter, await a frost-free period. Carefully remove the pot and gently tease the roots apart to spread them around the hole. Position the plant so that the ‘bud point’ (the place where the shoots emerge from, where the cultivated rose was grafted onto the rootstock) is at soil level. Replace the soil, firming it down gently, then water copiously. Ideally, a general purpose fertiliser should be applied to the surrounding soil as a top dressing. We also highly recommend the use of Rose Rootgrow, which provides a friendly fungus that prevents ‘rose replant syndrome’.
Buying our Roses
Pot Size
Most of our roses are supplied in a 4 litre pot although this may vary slightly depending on rose variety. If the size of pot differes significatly from 4 litres then we will make this clear somewhere on the product page.
Seasonality
Our roses are grown outdoors and as such are subject to seasonal changes. As we sell potted stock throughout the year your rose may not arrive and look like you expect it to. If you are uncertain how your rose will arrive (especially if buying for a gift) then we suggest you contact us prior to making a purchase.
Freshly Potted
Each year a new batch of roses is potted up ready for the following season. Once potted (usually November/December time) they go on sale as 'Freshly Potted'. If you purchase a freshly potted rose and plant it soon after you will find that when removing the rose from the pot there will be a lot of loose soil as the roots will not have had time to grow and bind the compost.
Pruned/Cut Back
In autumn the majority of our roses have finished flowering and begin to look untidy, at this point we prune them quite hard in preparation for the following season. We continue to sell roses throughout the year, when a rose has been pruned in such a way we will identify it has being so. If you are not sure what to expect then please ask prior to making a purchase. Some garden centres/supermarkets sell stock that has been grown abroad or in poly-tunnels so they look 'picture perfect' out of season, while this is ideal for a gift they are short lived once planted.
Aftercare
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