Moved into a vacant house and the roses are driving my crazy

8 years ago

I moved into a house that had foreclosed and the property was vacant for over a year. The roses were like 5ft tall and very bushy. I trimmed them WAY back, but they are still very bushy and send up suckers all over the place. They seem very labor intensive to keep them looking orderly. They have tons of blooms and bloom all summer, but just grow in so thick and have so many new suckers shooting out of the ground and branching off the canes. The flowers are pink and white about 2-3in in diameter. I'll post some pictures from my phone.

Basically I want to know what type of rose it is and if there is any way to make it more manageable before I rip them out. Pruning ever week sucks.

The 3rd picture is after not pruning for 3 weeks and they have filled in a lot. I had them trimmed back into individual plants instead of a solid wall of thorns.

This post was edited by SquirrelCrusher on Wed, Sep 3, 14 at 19:59

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SquirrelCrusher
Original Author
8 years ago
Picture 1 of 3
SquirrelCrusher
Original Author
8 years ago
Picture 2 of 3
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SquirrelCrusher
Original Author
8 years ago
Picture 3 of 3

If there is anything else that might help ID these roses please let me know.
lionheart_gw (USDA Zone 5A, Eastern NY)
8 years ago
Hey SquirrelCrusher (love the name). When you post the pictures, give us an idea of where you live, like maybe just the state.

When you talk about wildly suckering roses I have some ideas about what goes crazy in the cold zones, but if you live in a warm zone there might be an entirely different set of roses that would thrive like crazy that wouldn't survive here in the frozen tundra.

If you live in one of the warmer zones, the other folks who live in similar climates would be able to offer more appropriate suggestions. If you live in a cold zone, then the cold zoners would have more experience with that.

Also, let us know if the blooms are fragrant, if the buds have a sticky, mossy coating, and any other hints that might disambiguate the type of rose it could be.

Thanks!
SquirrelCrusher
Original Author
8 years ago
Sorry I thought it showed my state next to my name or something.

I live in South East Washington. 90s average in the summer with 2 weeks of 100+ and winters are 20-30 average with a week or two of single digits.

The roses get lots of sun. They are on the south side of my house and there aren't any trees shading them and the house doesn't shade them until late afternoon.

Pretty dry weather all summer. The roses don't seem to mind not getting watered regularly as the only water they get is a tiny bit from my lawn sprinklers over shoot during the weekly lawn watering.

The roses aren't very fragrant, I have to bury my nose into a bloom to get a scent

No sticky or mossy coating anywhere on the roses.

This post was edited by SquirrelCrusher on Wed, Sep 3, 14 at 21:22
diane_nj 6b/7a
8 years ago
The rose is Blushing Knock Out, I would know it anywhere. They are very vigorous growers, and are bred to be very bushy and full (mine is 7' tall, but I don't prune it very hard). You can try pruning it back a little harder. You don't have to do fancy pruning, just hedge clippers. They are meant to be landscape roses, and are used many places as hedges. I love mine because it it highly disease resistant here in blackspot happy central NJ.

But, if you don't like them, find a local rose society and offer them up to their members. Then, find something more to your liking.
seil zone 6b MI
8 years ago
I agree, Knock Outs. They really look quite lovely and healthy in those pictures! You say you are pruning them weekly but by how much? Did you know that pruning them will actually stimulate new growth? So if you're only taking off a couple of inches each time they are just going to get bigger and bigger for you. Roses are like most any other type of shrubs. If you want them waist high, prune them down to half that height to start with.

From your description it sounds like they are growing just the way they are supposed to grow. KOs are a shrub rose and grow like most other shrubs with new canes coming from the bottom and branches coming from those canes. I think these were meant to fill out to create a hedge type look and were never meant to be individual plants. Trying to make them grow in that manner will never work out because that is not their natural growth habit. Personally I would let them fill in and clip them just like you would a hedge. And, yes, you can even use hedge trimmers to do it. It won't hurt Knock Outs one bit. They are very hardy, healthy and vigorous growers.

In Washington state you will have some winter die back so in the spring you can probably cut them down to about 6 inches and they will grow back from there to a more manageable height. I do not recommend hard pruning roses in the fall in cold climates. Roses store a lot of their energy for spring growth in those canes. If you cut them off in the fall you cut off the energy they'll need to come back with next spring and if the winter is as bad as last years they may not make it.
SquirrelCrusher
Original Author
8 years ago
Thank you for helping me out. At least now I know what I am dealing with. I will try letting them "bush" out while I try and find someone to adopt them.

Again thank you for the help
thelarkascending
8 years ago
Yeah, I would say that some roses like that you really have to prune them hard to get what you want.

Moved into a vacant house and the roses are driving my crazy

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Moved into a vacant house and the roses are driving my crazy

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