Joanneb, I too am a new gardener, never planted a thing outside in my life, and whaddya know, I started with a tree rose (in March 2009) hahaha! of all things... But really I urge you to take the advice of DublinBay and Mad_Gallica...Really reconsider whether you want to have so many KOs... In my opinion there are sooooo many more lovelier and just as hardy roses.... I don't like KO because they don't have character in the formation of their petals and shape and they don't have scent...Bees don't particularly seem to care for them either... I see KOs everywhere and if you choose KOs it would be like choosing a landscape that looks like a typical apartment complex...KOs are everywhere, on every single sign, even fast food restaurants have KOs outside, every apartment complex is plastered with them, hotel chains, etc. etc. I too as a newbie did too many same kind of roses. Two Special Occasion roses, 2 Lincolns, 2 Sutter's Gold... And I guarantee, once you get hooked on roses you will wish you had far more than just one kind... Roses are like MAGIC... there are so many prolific bloomers like KO but with much more loveliness and all kinds of color...For me the magic is also fragrance, so I say take your time and best! of all just like everyone says, visit a real rose garden...Stupid me didn't do that, so I've got too many same kinds even though I love them all except for boring Queen Elizabeth with zilch fragrance (when I first started roses as a newbie and didn't know any better)...It's just that now I've discovered so many more roses and because I only have very limited space, I am indeed "stuck" with what I originally selected.

Yeah, they do the same thing here. But not so good of a deal. Last year one of the lowes across town did the same thing w/ tropicals. We "rescued 15 different plants. I am still nursing a majesty palm back to health and so far I am doing quite well. I am always out for a good deal at lowes sometimes they have good deals and at other times they are not so good.

The advice you read in rose books to prune back roses to encourage growth is more relevant for hybrid teas to encourage show-type blooms and not at all necessary even for them. You can prune any rose to try to encourage it to grow into a pleasing symmetrical shape once it gets big enough, and certainly deadheading (cutting or pinching off dead blooms behind the flowers) or a periodic haircut of the outermost couple of inches of branches (if you're lazy like me) can jumpstart a rose into increasing or continuing the blooms, but it's totally not necessary. In our cold zones, some people don't realize that Knockouts can lose branches to winterkill as much as any other rose, so you have to prune out the dead wood or they look unsightly pretty quickly. I spring prune all 75 Knockouts at my church every year now after they posted a pitiful note a few years ago that their "no care" roses looked awful. All they needed was the dead wood taken out, but that is all they need yearly and they bloom more or less all season, though you can see the dead blooms after a while and they slow down as they have more dead than live blooms. I'm just not willing to commit to deadheading or edge trimming all season for that many roses not in my own yard, and they do fine. Bottom line is I'd let them grow and do their own thing, particularly in zone 7, unless you enjoy the puttering about with roses. Cynthia

Thanks I bought them like that i've had them for about three weeks I only watered them I will fertilize soon to keep them going strong I use regular water dissolving fertilizer