Right, don't fertilize until they have recovered and have put out plenty of leaves. Bloom Buster is the wrong kind of fertilizer--regular Miracle Gro or Miracle Gro for Roses is fine, or any reasonably balanced fertilizer such as 10-10-10 or 18-6-12. Watering correctly is the most important thing. Keep a 2" mulch of leaves or bark around the roses. When the soil under the mulch feels dry-ish, water thoroughly with 2-3 gallons for small plants or 5 gallons for larger, plus or minus for extremely hot or very mild, cloudy weather. Usually once a week is fine. For new plants, I divide the ration in half and water twice a week.

My climate is not anything like yours (I live in eastern Washington) but I have had good luck with old fashioned shrub roses (mainly once blooming) and some hybrid musks and polyanthas (repeat blooming). I do have two yellow knock out roses (from Lowe's sale) with pink edges...and they fade to an ivory as they age. They're very pretty and I really like them. I think they look great, mixed in with lavender and pink perennials...and maybe cosmos and stock (annuals). Celsiana is one of my favorite old fashioned shrub roses. It's a damask and it blooms for a long time...four to six weeks. Here's a picture (not mine) that inspired me to get Celsiana. From Lavender's Garden Echo (Baby Tausendschon) from Rogue Valley Roses is a pretty little rose, too. I don't know how it is with humid conditions, but it does very well, in my garden. This is my picture :) From Lavender's Garden

Typically you prune in late winter/ early spring. As Paul Zimmerman would say, when the forsythia blooms. When I had knockouts I liked to keep them compact, so I pruned after every flush. And then really hard in the early spring. Here in the south, it would be late February. Not sure where you are located, but the forsythia rule is a good one. Whether you cut the spent blooms is up to you. I like neat, so I deadhead a lot. It's really just what you want to/ are willing to do. Knockouts are carefree by nature. You can always just do the winter prune and not worry about the rest :-) adrianne

Sorry for the delayed response. It has been a very hectic past few days! Dumb question. Is RRD contagious? Meaning if I try the wait and see approach (by removing only the impacted canes instead of digging up the whole plant) with the roses who don't seem to have it as bad yet.....will I take a risk that somehow the RRD could get transmitted to the roses who don't have it? I would hate to lose any of the seemingly healthy roses by doing this. Moving forward, is there anything I can do to lessen the chances of the roses getting RRD? This summer Japanese beetles have been widespread in this area. Honestly, I can't ever remember them being this bad before now...or ever even seeing them really. I know of several other people who have knockout roses here and everyone is having the same problem with the Japanese beetles feasting on them. So as bad as it may sound, I can take some solace in knowing it is not just my roses that are getting hit. Is there anything I can spray on the roses to prevent Japanese beetles from attacking them?