Wish I knew, its a nice plant. The only original photo I've seen of K of K is the McFarland ilustration. I do have a tiny plant that was sold by Ashdowne as K of K that they got from a Georgia dealer I believe. Still waiting for a bloom

Regarding K of K... Limberlost Roses was begun by Bob Edberg, an old friend of mine, and now a neighbor and friend of Paul Zimmerman, owner and operator of Ashdown Roses. The K of K you mention was, I believe, imported by Mike Lowe of Lowe's Own Root Roses in Nashua, NH. Bob obtained it from Mike. Ashdown was to be the nursery outlet for Lowe's more cold tender roses and eventually take over the nursery end of Mike's passion for roses. Much of the older, more cold hardy initial offerings Ashdown began with originated from Lowe's Own Root Roses. There is a VERY good probability both of you have the SAME rose as K of K, and that both of them came from Mike Lowe through Ashdown and Limberlost.

I managed Limberlost for a year or so when Bob sold it to Amit Reichtman who also owned Greenview Landscape. I helped Paul get Ashdown up and running with stock from my old collection of unusual roses. Prior to managing Limberlost, for years, I worked local to it and spent many lunch hours visiting with Bob in his eclectic collection of roses. At times, it was a magical place, full of unusual roses and often even more unusual characters! Imagine walking in with lunch and being greeted by Roddy McDowell or Julie Newmar! There were sure to be surprises every time I went for lunch.

K of K is very much an HP in growth and performance. It's usually listed as a single HT, though it has more than the five or six petals I personally associate with "single". It is taller and rangier than what I think of as Hybrid Tea like. You have to remember that classification of a rose is most often the judgement of the breeder/introducer. In 1916, its year of introduction, HPs were well on their way out. HTs were the coming vogue. All it requires to be considered a Hybrid Tea is for one parent to be a Tea or Hybrid Tea. Either could be the case, as there is no listed parentage for the rose. I considered K of K for my own single HT garden, but didn't care for the rangey aspect of the plant. Here in the Los Angeles area, it resembled Dr. Huey in growth and appearance of the plant to my eye, so I decided to grow Vesuvius instead as it is a much better behaved plant, much more in keeping with what I consider "Hybrid Tea" growth and shape.