Growing Knock Out® Roses

I receive a huge amount of questions about growing The Knock Out® Family of Roses and it's easy to understand why they are so popular. 

The original Knock Out® Rose was introduced in 2000 by The Conard-Pyle Co./Star® Roses. Created by Wisconsin rose breeder William Radler to reduce the rose gardener's to do list with a plant that was cold hardy, disease resistant and incredibly floriferous. Knock Out® is cold tolerant to zone 5, heat tolerant throughout the U.S., reliably resistant to disease and produces a bevy of blooms every 5 to 6 weeks from spring until the first hard frost. I'd call that success! No wonder it won the AARS Award that year.

There are seven beautiful members of The Knock Out® Family of Roses in a wide range of colors ranging from cherry red to creamy yellow.

The Knock Out® Rose	The Double Knock Out® Rose
The Pink Knock Out® Rose	The Double Pink Knock Out® Rose
The Blushing Knock Out® Rose	The Sunny Knock Out® Rose
The Rainbow Knock Out® Rose

The natural inclination of The Knock Out® Family of Roses is to grow to about 3' wide x 4' tall, but they are easily maintained at a smaller size through pruning.  They are ideal for growing in mixed borders, in containers or as a hedge.

Just like other roses, The Knock Out® Family of Roses perform best when planted in full sun.  The soil should be well drained and fertile.

Plant the roses 4 feet apart to allow for room to grow and good air circulation.   

To keep the flowers coming feed your roses with a fertilizer blended especially for roses.  This should be done after each bloom cycle.  There is no need to remove faded flowers because these roses are self cleaning – another task you can remove from your to do list!

Prune in late winter or early spring, while the plant is still dormant.  Remove any dead or damaged wood, do a little shaping if necessary, and take out some of the interior stems to improve air circulation.  Every 2 or 3 years remove about one third of the old branches to stimulate new, fresh growth.  If you are trying to keep the roses at a certain height, you can cut them back hard with hedge shears.  No need to worry about usual rose pruning rule of cutting back to an outward facing leaf bud – just lop them down to the desired size.  I've even seen Knock Out® Roses spring back beautifully after being cut down to 6-inches.