How to Maintain a Knockout rose bush

Maintenance for a Knockout Rose bush is actually a really easy question and answer.  A knockout rose is a great landscape plant that does not require much maintenance.

A knockout rose bush comes in several different colors.  The colors are red, double red, pink, double pink, rainbow, blush, and yellow.  More color are being developed as we speak.  Weeks Roses was one of the first to develop the Knockout Rose.  The rose bush grows to about five foot high and can get five foot around.  Once it begins to bloom in the spring, it usually does not stop until it has had multiple frost on it in the fall.  It will loose 2/3 or more of its leaves during the winter, so plant it somewhere that you don’t mind it being naked in the winter.

Ok, so maintenance of the knockout rose.  That would consist of trimming, and trimming, and trimming some more.  The only real maintenance to a knockout rose is trimming.  Trimming can be done with power trimmers and you will not damage the plant, but you will change the look slightly.  It will look sheared instead of natural.   Hand pruning is the best way, but not always the most practical way.  Once the old blooms go away, you can decide whether you want to dead head the little pods off or not.  I have done both ways and the plant doesn’t care.  It is up to you as to where the plant is and what you want it to look like at the time.

This year, 2009, has been such a wet spring that bugs got on the knockout rose for the first time ever.  Neem oil took care of that problem very easily and quickly.

Happy Roses