# Knockout rose care



## bassadict69 (Apr 2, 2018)

What is your routine for your knockouts? Trimming, fertilizing, etc.


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## chrismar (May 25, 2017)

I've got about 15 or so knock-out bushes around the yard. I prune them in late winter by taking off up to a 3rd of their stems length and getting rid of any dead or diseased limbs. Other than that I don't do much with them. As for fertilizer they get a handful of OceanGro (NJ's milo) a couple times a year in the late spring and late summer.


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## bassadict69 (Apr 2, 2018)

Trying to decide if we need to cut them back before the winter here in the south.


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## Ecks from Tex (Apr 26, 2018)

bassadict69 said:


> Trying to decide if we need to cut them back before the winter here in the south.


Depends on what you mean when you say "cut back." You don't do a major cutting while the plant is growing, you do that Feb. 14. That is often a cut to about 1/3 the plant height.

But you can bring down the growth 2/3 its height (or even 1/2 if you really know how to prune) during the summer and it will just help the plant bloom even stronger. Do you know how to properly prune using the 5-leaf technique? That's all you have to do, is just take each branch down using that technique and lower the overall plant. Cut intersecting branches and cut branches that have leaves that will drain onto lower branches (causing disease).

Disease care is the most important thing with roses, but knockouts are pretty care-free. I have hybrid roses that will die if you look at them funny. But either way I keep all my roses on a preventative program. I've posted about it before with Greendoc I bet you can find it if you search for a thread about "rose care" in this subforum.

For fertilizer - always use a slow release fert (I use one with systemic insecticide from fertilome) as your baseline, but I supplement every other week with a 20-20-20 to keep them blooming strong during the growing season. I don't hit them as hard during summer, and start to wind things down in the fall.


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## bassadict69 (Apr 2, 2018)

Thanks! I will have to look more into how to prune them. So far all I have done the last few years is cut them back to about a foot tall in early spring.


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