A new kind of rose has entered the garden and it is a Knock-Out.  This shrub rose is a wonder, a blooming machine that lives up to all of its hype.  Black spot on the leaves?  Try and find some.  Thrips chewing up flower buds?  They wouldn't dare.

Heat from the southern sun doesn't stop it.  95% humidity?  It doesn't care.  The original red Knock Out rose has been in my garden for two seasons.  It is bloomin' crazy.  From the first flower in early spring to the freeze in late fall, it covers itself in red.

The only thing that caused any damage was the annual visit of the irridescent Japanese Beetles.  They feasted on some of the flower petals and leaves.  Oddly enough, there wasn't that much damage.  They bothered me much more than the rose-bush.  After a couple of weeks, they  disappeared.  The Knock-Out sent up new foliage and new flower buds.  I didn't even have to trim off the damage. The bush just hid it in new growth!

Last summer I planted a double red Knock-Out in part shade.  The flowers are larger and arranged more loosely, like bouquets, rather than head to head all over the bush as in the original red.  It also is a very clean shrub, requiring no trimming or dead-heading.

The best attribute of these roses is their healthy attitude.  So far, these roses just shrug off most all comers.  Since insecticides kill the good guys along with the bad, I try not to use any sprays that might alter the balance in my garden.  So, roses, even the old-fashioned ones, are soon defoliated and declining.  But not these wonders.

There are very few plants that can go into the ground and then be left to grow without the gardener's help.  Just keep this one watered the first year to get it established and then it can be on its own, doing its blossoming best.

There is a double pink and, new this year, Rainbow Knock Out, a soft coral pink with a yellow center that ages to coral.  Although I haven't tried them yet, I believe these will be as carefree as their relatives.

You can deadhead and/or trim these shrub roses but it isn't necessary.  They are self-cleaning.  You can use them in a flower border, as a specimen shrub, or line them up as a neighbor friendly fence.  These shrubs give roses a good name.

"The best rose-bush, after all, is not that which has the fewest thorns, but that which bears the finest roses." --  Henry Van Dyk

--Posted by Anne K. Moore  May 20, 2007--