Knock Out® Roses a bloom for all seasons

    Roses are a good shrub for Colorado. The amount of sun is perfect. However, there are few roses, other than shrub roses, that do not require some kind of daily care. Picking dead leaves off the ground, scratching weeds from around the rose, deadheading and checking for watering is standard maintenance for any rose. Knock Out® Roses will save the daily maintenance of deadheading spent blooms. Why? Knock Out® Roses will form new buds every five to six weeks. If you want more new buds, you can prune. However, Knock Out® Roses are designed to be easy-care and “self-cleaning.” The rose petals fall cleanly off and do not produce a seed pod, which is called a rose hip.
    Do they need pruning at all? Yes, but timing is everything, even with pruning. Do not start pruning too early in the spring. Wait until the leaves bud out. Do not prune in late summer or early fall. Pruning encourages new growth. Every time you prune, auxins are initiated. They are a hormone that tells the stem below what was pruned to start growing. Pruning in the fall will encourage new growth that is tender. This tender growth will not harden off in time for winter. This means that the new growth will freeze. The rose has put a lot of energy into the new growth.
    Knock Out® Roses will grow to 3 to 4 feet wide by 3 to 4 feet high each season. The recommendation is to prune the Knock Out® Roses to 12 inches tall, and by the end of the season they will be 3 to 4 feet wide and high. That really depends on the kind of growing season we have here and the elevation in Colorado. You can prune them to whatever width and height you want and keep them at that size each season.
    These roses like a sunny location with at least six hours of sun. They need some winter protection. They do not like being in open exposed areas in the winter time. Purchase some burlap and some stakes and just wrap that around the rose. This will help with the wind exposure and keep the roses insulated.  

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