Everything I never knew about: knockout roses

As fall and winter approach, I’m going into schoolie mode.  That’s the nice way my husband refers to me–as a schoolie.  {Read: dork.}

I love to learn.  And there is so. much. to. learn. about this garden/yard/microcosm of life that I get to stare at out this window as I type.  So, the plan is to create for myself a series of posts to serve as a reminder of what I’m learning and to calendar what I need to do as I research through the things I love to grow.  All of this is {of course} in hopes of getting better and better yield next year, and the years after that.

These posts won’t be intended as a detailed how-to or thorough guide to growing anything…they’re just want the title implies–me teaching me the stuff I don’t know, and making reminders of things to try new or different next year.  So if this sounds of interest to you, here ya go!  And if not, there’s a lovely column over there on the right hand side of great blogs probably doing far more interesting things this dormancy season!

 

First up, an easy one: knockout roses.

I have double knock outs.

I picked them for the pop of color against our light house. But in researching I just saw the blushing knock out rose, and those are pretty lovely. They remind me of a dogwood blossom. However, no regrets, they are too pale for our house.  So we’re painting the roses red.

I wanted basically zero maintenance for the front of our house. Last spring these replaced loropetalum, which were taking over. We could cut back and cut back and still they were trying to grab the dog.

Most of the sites I’m seeing recommend to fertilize after each bloom cycle. But the University of Illinois Extension site gives specific months for fertilizing—I think I will try their schedule for next year and move to after each bloom cycle if I’m not getting the results I want. They say to do so in the spring after pruning, again in mid June, last time in mid July, and never after August 15 because the bushes need to prepare for dormancy.

Looks like you can prune in late winter or early spring without issue.  The landscaping crew that scapes our neighborhood cuts them back hard to about knee height, and they seem to do well on those houses.  I think I’m going to go with the cut back hard method this year in late winter and see how they do.

So here’s what’s getting added to my calendar:

cut back to knee-height in late February

fertilize with rose food when cut back, again in mid June and last time in mid July

allow dog back on front porch now that loropetalum are gone