Knockout, Flower Carpet, or Easy Elegance?

16 years ago

I'm going to be doing some landscaping soon & would like to add a few roses. A lot of people in my neighborhood have the Knockout roses. They look very healthy & have a lot of blooms. I know most of these people aren't gardeners, so the Knockouts must do pretty well with minimum care.

I'm trying to decide between Knockout, Flower Carpet & Easy Elegance. I'm having a hard time finding the Flower Carpet, but the others look to be fairly accessible.

The Knockout I see most often here is the red, but it seems to lean toward pink. I'm looking for a true red rose. Also, I'd like yellow & find that Knockouts don't come in yellow. I recently discovered the Easy Elegance but don't really know anything about them. I understand from research I've done that the Knockouts bloom longer than the Flower Carpet. I would really like to have the extended blooming time.

Can someone please help me decide between these varieties? My dad was a huge rose grower (hybrid teas), so I know quite a bit about care. However, I have a very demanding job & would like roses that are pretty carefree. I love gardening but don't have the time to spend tending really high-maintenance plants. I garden in Zone 8 near the NC coast, so we have very hot, humid summers.

If there are any other varieties of easy-care roses that I should consider, please make a suggestion. Thanks.

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Comments (8)

diane_nj 6b/7a
16 years ago
Disease resistance in Flower Carpet varieties varies widely.

For a "true red" there is Home Run (Knock Out is one of its parents).

For yellow, there is the new Sunny Knock Out or Carefree Sunshine (from the same hybridizer as Knock Out).

For more recommendations, we need to know what zone you are in and where you live (e. g., central PA, southeastern GA...).
diane_nj 6b/7a
16 years ago
Sorry, you DID tell us where you live!

ronda_in_carolina (SC) has a list of easy care roses on her page, which I have linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: ronda_in_carolina's Member Page
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I bought quite a few of these last year at Lowe's and am enjoying seeing how they are acting this spring here in zone 5. Due to my daughters wedding last fall I got NO outside work done, never even got my potted roses into the garage because so much wedding stuff was in there, so no winter protection at all. Little Mischief has tons of foliage and was mostly cane hardy. It's a short plant that has filled in quite well after being planted in the dead of summer last year. High Voltage was mostly cane hardy as well. Much taller. Two that I cannot find a tag for (but are the same - it's a symmetrical bed) I am pretty sure was Music Box. They were taller and mostly cane hardy as well. Wasn't expecting that from Music Box as I had read their vigor and hardiness was somewhat questionable. Grandma's Blessing was not cane hardy at all - just pruned it way down this week. Pretty sure it will grow back from the ground though. Have Champagne Wishes across the sidewalk and it wasn't very cane hardy either but is pumping out growth now. In a different bed (more exposed to wind and less snow cover) Sunrise Sunset planted late summer was almost fully cane hardy and has growth the entire length of sprawling 4' long canes. I suspect it's going to outgrow its spot in the bed and head into the yard this summer. My Girl looks good as well. Had to prune out some winter kill. Calypso had quite a bit of cane die but looks like it will grow back well from the ground. Unfortunately I had about 5 more still in the growers pots that never got planted and never got put in the garage. Whoops. I think one (super hero maybe???) may still be alive but the others don't look promising. That's my own fault though. They had had a whole bunch of them at Lowes earlier this week. I may have to go get a Kashmir (don't think I found it last year) and look for a Sweet Fragrance - debated on it last year and don't remember seeing it the other day. I did pick up two Above and Beyond climbers at Lowes - not Easy Elegance but same company. Never saw them around here before and want to put them on an arbor I got from Lowes 90% off the fall before last :)
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Funny I always see the pets before the plants, Beautiful kitty was my first thought as well. All the easy elegance you mentioned will be upright after this year except SS. Don't know your zone but many of my EE's do die to the ground in winter here depending on how harsh the winter is. They bounce back nicely for the next year thou. I'm trying an experiment with a new Sunrise Sunset. Since all of my original SS's always kept their canes off the ground. I was wondering if the difference could be fertilizer. My soil is much improved over what it once was and can't change that. But it is not going to receive any extras. No seaweed sprays, alfalfa meal, cotton seed meal, leaves, nitrogen ect ect ect. To see if she may grow more upright than they do now. Even before the extra care they were always covered in bloom. I believe perhaps more than they are now. Since we have had nearly zero sun this season the truer test will be next year.
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Jean Marion (z6a Idaho)
16 years ago
Easy Elegance Yellow Submarine is gorgeous! These are new roses though so they aren't widely grown or known yet...
harryshoe zone6 eastern Pennsylvania
16 years ago
Kittiemom,
I do not grow Easy Elegance but have had KO and Flower Carpet in my garden for 4 years. They are both great landscaping plants which require little care. Here, FC Red produces more blooms than KO.

Flower Carpet Red

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Cindy Ehrenreich
16 years ago
The Easy Elegance is a good series. Like decbug said Yellow Submarine is gorgeous. I also love Macy's Pride which is a nice creamy whitewith a hint of yellow and pink. My Hero is supposed to be a great red. In addition Bailey's offers a 2 year guarantee on their Easy Elegance series, which no other grower would dare to do.
the_morden_man
16 years ago
None of the ones on your list... Take a look at "Homerun" instead. You may also want to consider Elveshorn.
twohuskies
16 years ago
I have KO's and Easy Elegance roses, no flower carpets. Hands down I'd much rather have EE's over the KO's. I mean KO's are pretty much completely carefree, but the flowers on the EE roses are so much nicer. My absolute favorite is Macy's Pride. I also really like My Hero, Grandma's Blessing, Funny Face, and my soon to be favorite All the Rage. Tahitian Moon and Fiesta are nice too though they are best used as short climbers. Disease resistance on my EE's have been excellent.

Macy's Pride
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All the Rage
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stone_garden
16 years ago
I know a lot of people love KO, but where I live they are so ubiquitous I'm tired of them! My limited experience: I had one pink Flower Carpet, for me I was not impressed - it grew well enough, but only seemed to have one flush and then I read these roses are closely bred to rugosas, so you may not see continuous flowering as claimed. Eventually got SP'd was fed up with the thorny flowerless weediness.

Easy Elegance: I was just admiring my bursting with growth own-root (from Home Depot 2 years ago) Macy's Pride and Funny Face Easy Elegance roses this morning. (Maybe all EEs are own-root). I treated these terribly the first year, left them in the original pots, they were down to a few spindly shoots. Now planted in baking sun front yard in not the greatest soil (though they did get fertilized) and they have really bushed out and shot up, with multiple buds.

I do have some light black spot low down but then stupidly planted them (3) too close together, I will fix that next year. Based on this small experience I would buy more Easy Elegance tomorrow, if I could. PS. My front soil is horrible rocky clay that was amended a bit with organics, nevertheless the roses are happily sharing space with a Japanese spirea and some other shrubs. Easy care bushes!

Knockout, Flower Carpet, or Easy Elegance?

Comments (8)

diane_nj 6b/7a

diane_nj 6b/7a

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