Q&A for How to Prune Knockout Roses

Prune your rose bush to about 6”-8” above the ground. This is called a rejuvenation prune and will encourage bushier growth.

Prune them in the spring before the leaves appear. Prune to the desired height. Prune above an outward facing bud and make a 45° angle cut.

Leave three main branches about twelve inches tall. You'll be surprised how much regrowth and blooms you get.

Yes, it can.

The white spots are either fungal or mites. Find your local gardening place and buy a good spray to help ensure survival; taking a small sample with you helps. Also, don't prune too heavily in the growing season.

Start pruning if the leaves are getting green or are too long for you.

Yeah. It can hurt the rest of the rose, and it's useless and ugly.

If the pulp is brown, then that stem is dead and should be totally removed.

Yes. I always use Quick Start and water the plant before I move it, then water with Quick Start for three days after planting. In my experience, the rose has no shock using this method.

They usually come back every year, so in the winter, they are dormant.

It sounds like there's an overabundance of growth on the bush. Try clipping a few of the flower clusters 6-8 inches below the blooms to alleviate some of the weight. Keep in mind that it's okay to remove as much as one-third to one-half of the plant's overall volume as long as you do it early enough in the spring for it to grow back.

No, it's not okay. Trim off the wooded area as close to the new growth as possible.

Eventually they will die off. Black spot is a fungi and needs to be removed as soon as you see it. Use a fungal spray every two weeks, and cut out all branches and leaves that have the black spots on them. Throw away everything you removed far away from any other roses or plants. The fungi spreads by spores, so keep the area beneath the rose bush clear of dead leaves. Use mulch to help keep the spores from getting on the bush. Clean your pruners before and after using them on black spot roses. The spores stay on the pruners and you can infect other plants and roses if you don't disinfect them. I understand that any household cleaner will work, or alcohol.

If your rose bushes haven't yet filled out and become lush, there's probably no need to prune them. However, you might do a little maintenance by removing overlapping or tightly-cluster canes and taking off a portion of the plant's overall height to keep it under control.

Since roses bloom a lot, they use a lot of energy. Its best to fertilize 2 - 3 times with low-quality fertilizer, or once annually with a high-quality fertilizer.

Any nutritious fertilizer will do. Just make sure it has all the nutrients the rose needs.

Yes, roses are very easy to root from cuttings. They will bloom very nicely.

Rosetone works great. After I prune, I fertilize with a handful of Rosetone on each bush.

Check for thrips. They are not visible to us, but the damage is. Frilly new growth, light colored and weak stems are all signs. The buds will look different as well.

No, the red stems are signs of new, healthy growth. Let them grow to full size and then prune to shape if necessary.

Yes. I've done this and they lasted quite some time. I tried with unopened buds and it didn't work, though.

Clean up from the ground all of last year's mulch and dead dropped leaves. Sterilize your pruners. Prune off dead and diseased wood. Spray weekly with a fungicidal spray. Put down new mulch and dispose of all the old mulch and leaf litter off your property.

Yes, as soon as they die. Do so with gloves and pruning shears. 1. Cut off the dead or ugly rosebuds at a 45 degree angle 1/4 inch above the next healthy looking set of 5 leaves. 2. Cut away the small bushy growth towards the bottom of the bush to increase airflow around the main strong stems. 3. Cut off any leaves that don't look immaculate. 4. New growth is reddish in color, so don't cut it off.

Yes, you can actually prune them any time during the year, but major pruning is done in the spring. We tend one bed that gets a 1/3 pruning in August and it does well.

Try doing a major "shaping " pruning now and then, in the spring, do a 1/3 to 1/2 pruning.

Yes, all plants need fertilization. Give a good granular fertilizer application in spring and fall, and it can't hurt to shoot it with some liquid during the summer. Buy a good fertilizer developed for roses and follow the instructions on the label, you can't go wrong

Give the a shock pruning, cut back to 12 - 16 inches leaving only 3-5 main canes.

Check for insects or disease and treat if necessary. Also, test soil and amend if needed. And you could add some iron for a overall deeper green.