Pruning & Winterizing

Knock Out Roses        

Jump to Winterizing Knock Out Roses Below

Jump to Insect Control on Knock Out Roses

     Well I understand that you chose to grow Knock Out Roses due to their low maintenance attributes, but pruning is still a necessity if you want to maximize the full potential of the Knock Out Rose family of roses.

     Starting each spring with a well pruned Knock Out roses is important due to the aggressive growth that you'll receive throughout the growing season. This allows you to begin the year with roses of balanced sizes when planted in groups and also allow you to shape and provide uniformity within each of the roses. Remember to always prune out any damaged branches and look for any branch congestion in areas that may require thinning. You'll see more on this topic in the below pruning tips on Winterizing your Knock Out Roses.

     Once the roses have been prepared to go into the spring growing season, then all you'll need to do is fertilize and enjoy the results throughout the entire growing season from spring thru the fall season. There are three primary reasons that you'd consider pruning Knock Out roses throughout the growing season. They are as follows:

1. Manage allowable size in area planted.

2. Provide a general cleaner and more managed appearance.

3. Provide a thicker growth habit leading to more bloom volume.

     Depending on the variety of Knock Out Rose that you have acquired, some are a little more aggressive than others, such as the first release, the standard red "Knock Out" variety. This is one of the most aggressive, along with the "Pink Knock Out" that can grow to heights of 6-8' if not pruned and maintained. It's common for most gardeners to want Knock Out Roses to be maintained in the 4-5' height range, and even small in cases, so pruning to manage these intended sizes is critical. Remember pruning is not a must and your roses will bloom and perform regardless, but placing a little attention in your Knock Out Roses will create very noticeable results.

     The degree of attention that you place on pruning can certainly vary. For those gardeners who wish to maybe only prune their Knock Outs 2-3 times throughout the year, I suggest that you utilize the slow down periods following heavy blooming cycles to prune the Knock Outs and remember to apply Fertilome Rose Food or Mills Magic Rose Food following each pruning. The amount of pruning can vary again depending on the volume of size control that you are needing to apply. On average, it's common to prune back Knock Outs by 20-25% during each pruning visit especially when only pruning 2-3 times throughout the year.

     For those gardeners who like to provide a monthly clean up of your Knock Outs, your volume of pruning will be less to maybe only 10-20% and you'll focus on clean up of dead heading all blooming out flowers and any remaining rose hips. Your degree of fertilizing will depend on how aggressive you want your roses to be, but I suggest fertilizing at least every other month.

     That's pretty much all there is too it! Remember that, during your pruning visits, you can manage any needed pruning to keep your roses balanced in size and shape and perform any thinning possible where any heavily congested foliage or branching is obvious. This type of pruning and fertilizing to your Knock Out Roses will provide you one of the easiest to grow and most colorful shrubs available today. You and your Knock Outs will be the envy of the neighborhood.

Winterizing or Winter Prep of your Knock Out Roses

     Knock Out Roses will perform solid throughout the growing season and amazing perform down to the beginning of winter frost and freezes in late fall. They seem to not know that winter is arriving and will often be fully loaded with blooms and buds during the early winter season.

     I suggest that you perform a fairly heavy pruning of your Knock Out Roes in late fall to early winter to start your preparation for next spring. The volume of pruning can depend on the nature of their last pruning performed and how often the pruning visits were performed throughout the year.

 

 

             Before & After of Winter Prep Pruning of

            Knock Out Roses not pruned since Summer

     Click Here to View Larger Picture of Before & After

     Above and below are some pictures of two groups of Double Knock Out Roses that show ones that hadn't been pruned aggressively in the summer and ones that had been pruned earlier in the fall season. The less pruned Knock Outs were tall and more leggy and required a heavier pruning to prepare for winter. The group that had been pruned earlier in the fall season were more compact and didn't need near as much pruning, but clean up, dead heading, removal of buds and old flowers, etc. was performed with a light volume of branches being also pruned back.

     Often the winter preparation pruning will be performed for two primary reasons. First to minimize any chance of snow load breakage, and second to provide a neat and cleaner appearance for the winter season. Again, if you don't manage this winter preparation pruning, it is likely that your Knock Out Roses will be fine and will start up in the spring with their normal zeal. Just remember to manage the needed pruning in the spring to get them started off right.

   

Before of Knock Out Rose pruned

             earlier in the Fall

 

 

 

                                                                 Winter Clean up of Knock Out Rose

           pruned earlier in the Fall

    Click Here to view larger picture of

             before & after picture

 

 

It is common for Knock Outs to be possibly pruned again a little heavier in the spring to prepare for the onset of heavy new growth and blossoms. This again will vary on the size intended for your Knock Outs to grow. For those Knock Out owners who want large Knock Outs, you may not prune any further following your winter preparation, but those who intend to keep Knock Out roses in the 4' height range are advised to prune heavily to start off each spring with a Knock Out in the 2-2.5' height range or even smaller. Remember, you can NOT prune a Knock Out Roses too much.

    The general rule of thumb that I will state is this:

                                       The more you prune .... the more they bloom!!

     For those customers who have acquired Knock Out Roses from Evergreen of JC over the last few years, we want to thank you for your support. Evergreen has partnered up with Greenleaf Nursery on producing a quality and affordable Knock Out Rose for us to provide the most affordable Knock Outs in our area.

     Remember feeding your Knock Out Roses will only get you even more blossoms than already produced. We suggest applying Fertilome Rose Food or Mill Magic Rose Food every 1 to 2 months. These are granular applications that will break down slowly with rainfall and/or irrigation and will provide continual nutrients needed for heavy blooming and attractive foliage.

     Insect Control for Knock Out Roses

     All roses, even Knock Outs are subject to the onset of Japanese Beetles that plague our roses from June thru August. We have been experimenting, with good results, the application of Fertilome Systemic Soil Drench Insecticide containing Merit, a quality insecticide that is taken up thru the root system and one applications applied properly provides a full year of insect control. Though this product hasn't proven to eliminate Japanese Beetles totally, it has certainly provided a dramatic cut back of their volume and damage done.  It's as easy as mixing and pouring onto the root system with a watering can. No fancy sprayers or applicators needed for a full year of insect control.    

 If you desire to apply a insecticide on a regular basis for extra control of unwanted insects, we suggest using Fertilome Carbaryl or HiYield Indoor/Outdoor All Purpose Insecticide, both being great all purpose insecticides. These require to be applied with a compression or hand held sprayer.