Wow Summer! so Nice!

Thanks for showing and sharing those pictures of all those knockouts.

Here is my Dbl Knockout.( b4 the rough winter.) I will winter protect it this winter.

Oh my goodness summer that was well worth staying up to see. I love it.

How close do you plant them to give that full lush look.

Thanks Patty and Sam. The 2nd pic really showed the midge damage, not in full bloom like Sam's. I planted them pretty close, a lot of them were 1 gal plants. I think they are 2' apart or something like that.....I know they're too close. :-)

I also winter protected the Knockout the first few years. I used leaves.

I wait to collect the leaves two more months from now

I haven't used wood mulch on the roses in years. That could be where the canker comes from.

I forgot to mention that I only dig half a hole to plant a rose, so the grafted part is not covered much. I have been use mulch to cover up the grafted area without any canker issues. I have more than 500 roses used mulch every year........ may be because I spray for bugs. :-)

So you don't bury the graft? In your zone burying the graft is recommended practice.

I intend to spray my roses with sulphur before mounding with mulch this year to see if that will reduce canker.

I have two rows of 12 knock out roses planted in my yard over a span
of 30 feet. They look great. I didn't prune mid summer this year, I cut them all down to 2 feet in April, today they have stems about 6' 2" tall. In that row, I have an originally pink knock out which
two years ago reverted to red and has stayed red, then I also have a
pink double knock out on which half the bush has reverted to red. At first I wasn't happy about the reds showing up in my perfectly nice, pink field but the look has grown on me and now I
actually like the effect of red blooms among the pink. There must be something in my soil in that immediate area causing the sports because the two bushes doing it are right next to each other. They were all purchased for $2 each on clearance from Home Depot in November 2012. Take a look.

Early spring, May 19 (from deck above, see the red field at the top)

Mid summer, July 15

I love your beautiful roses, summers. Those beds are stunning. Just wanted to add, though, that even in zone 7, I bury the graft. We were zone 6 just a few years ago. The one rose, Angel Face, whose graft didn't get buried due to a hard caliche layer, has given me fits with its dieback and general lack of hardiness. I've never lost a rose to cold, so burying the graft works for me.

Anyway, I'm terrifically impressed with your roses--not sure you need any advice! I think we could take some advice from you, in fact. Diane

Thanks Diane! I bought a lot of KOs for landscaping, I thought KOs were hardy enough to take the cold, so I didn't cover them up with dirt/ mulch, they were under snow for most of winter, plus we had mild winters before 2013, so they had good chance to grow up. A few dead KOs were close to the street, the heavy salt from the street might be another reason too..... hole digging is pretty hard in my yard, I have tree roots everywhere, most of KOs are around trees, I don't know how to cut the big tree roots in a hole, so I just make sure the roots are in the hole, I had to really push all the roots in the hole and then cover them up with dirt, I know that's not a good way to plant a rose. I did pretty much everything wrong on how to plant a rose...... and before winter I cover them up more with mulch. I am planning to buy a trailer mulch this weekend, I will post some photos to show the newly planted roses before and after the mulch. :-)

Richard, Your KOs look lovely! What a bargain you got!! :-)

Your method obviously works, summers, and I don't have tree roots to contend with, though our dirt isn't very good. We get very little snow in this desert, so I don't have that for insulation. I didn't realize how useful snow could be until I joined this forum-heh.

Richard and Sam your Knockouts are pretty gorgeous, too. Love them all. Diane

Wow great pics everyone! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks all, the cheap buys always yield the most satisfaction lol

Home in time to see more great photos Thats beautiful, Richard thanks for the for the inspiration you guys. Now to accomplish the dream before I'm to old to dig.

Oh my what a cute dggie. As far as the rose goes I'd be more than happy to see that in my yard.

Confession time, So I'm on my way to Menards to get soil at the end of October. Before getting there my eye catches a flash of lovely pink. Immediate right turn into the parking lot. Thinking it's the end of Oct. lady and you're stopping for a rose. Further more why did Rural King get a shipment of roses at this time of year. Dang thats double pink Knockout and I have never seen one before. Closer inspection it's own root. I tried to reason with myself but it followed me home. Secretly very happy even thou it was the end of Oct. Oh well what can you do.

LOL on it following you home Patty...

Good for you Patty! Start digging! :-) Found an old photo from 2012.........

Diane, There are 7 Julia's Child growing in the KO gardens along with DAs and old garden roses, so next year you will see more colors. :-)

Jim, Nice photos! Lovely dog! Is that a goldendoodle?

Yep Goldendoodle...

Oh, that will be glorious, summers, and your 2012 photo is beautiful, too. I love the clematis on the mailbox with the lovely roses surrounding it. I hope the mail man/woman appreciates all the beauty. Diane

Dianne your garden photo is gorgeous. Can't wait to see more of them. Thats one of the cutest mailboxes I've ever seen. Something to google during the up coming boring winter.

First time I've seen a goldendoodle.

Thanks guys. My mailbox doesn't look pretty now without any blooms on it. I put some mulch around newly planted roses today, took 2 before and after photos, so you can see my lazy way to plant a rose.......(please do not follow). This is a bargain $5.00 Forth of July I got from Lowe's 2 months ago, planted near a tree. :-)

Before

After:

Thanks Jim. They are there now! :-) I just added them in.......

Looks like good mulch. I had to go up with my beds because of tree roots. That looks planted fairly well to me. I be embarrassed to show how I planted a hydrangea a couple years ago. It's still living and huge now. Did not really think it would live thru winter.

I bury our canes a bit deeper when I first plant them... Does the mulch help Summer?

I tried to grow a "All Summer Beauty" hydrangea but never got any blooms in 3 full years so I yanked it... No summer beauty here...lol

Found this pic from June 1st 2015 when the D. Ko's were smaller in size...

Thanks Patty! Looking good Jim! :-) I got bargain bark mulch- $20 per yard( end of season)! Got 3 yards, only used 1.5 yard so far, my back is sore. :-)

I think so Jim. I only dig half of a hole to plant a rose, have tree roots all over the yard. See photo 1, the grafted part is above the soil, then I cover it up with mulch.

I also have a All Summer Beauty with no flowers for 4 years (?), I will move it to a different spot next spring. It's under a pine tree, may be not enough sun......

Our All Summer Beauty was planted in a full sun location and still nothing!

Yes tree roots would make a difference...

For what its worth, I'm in zone 5B and have lost several KOs over the years, but I've never lost a Home Run. KOs just aren't that winter hardy. They are very similar roses except HR is a little more red and KO is a little more pink. I use zero winter protection.

Well KO is one of HR's parents... and I've read reports of HR not being cane hardy in zone 5. Then again, we need to maybe get more specific as there is a huge difference between zone 5b top minimum temp of -10F and 5a bottom minimum temp of -20F. Those are some nasty temps that only the hardiest plants can survive.

Nice, hardy to the tips in zone 5a?

Also, do you have a pic of that during the growing season in full bloom? Has to be nice to behold!

Chicagoland, zone 5b here. I guess I'm getting lazy in my old age. I'm feeling like if you plant it deep enough, you don't have to winter protect it. If it dies, so what? There are others out there that will take the winter. I havent winter protected a rose in the last 7 years and I think I've lost less than two per year out of 250+. The ones I have lost were weaklings to begin with and were'nt doing well anyway. I do mulch my roses, (but I don't bury them with mulch) and I do keep them watered in the fall, but I've had more problems with mice than winter.

I buried one bed under leaves when i first started growing roses, and I lost almost every rose to mice. Then, for a while I would surround them with bags of leaves with a dixie cup full of mice poison. That was way too much work and looked really bad to boot. I ran into a wisened old veteran and he told me not to bother. Guess what- He was right!

Did you do your winter protection after you already had a couple of hard freezes (down to the 20s)? By the time those temps hit the mice would have already found their homes and it won't be in your rose mounds.

But the voles are still out and about!

Yes voles do not hibernate but no one has stated they had problems with voles "moving" into their rose homes for the winter. I have no proof of it but I think damage by voles is less than that by mice.

I understand that Samuel, but WHEN to protect to avoid damage is part of that conversation yes?

This post is about winter protection for newly planted knockouts.

Ameri2nal has knockout roses protected on the south side of a house. That is the best kind of winter protection.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3678827/queen-of-sweden-and-jude-the-obscure-shade-tolerance#16746266

What will be the ambient temperature?? That is what your roses actually feel.

-45F! My goodness, you'd need a full length coyote coat to survive.

And I have knockout roses that are not protected by any structure and thats where I lost a few. My Home runs are not protected by any structure and have never lost one. The KOs by the house always are the least damaged by the winter.

Ameri, Do your Home Runs repeat as fast as KOs? My KOs and Carpet roses are my landscaping roses, there for the old garden roses won't need to hurry filling the colors in the yard......another rose repeats fast and hardy is Polar Joy (trees) in my garden. In the past I lost a few KOs to the winter, I think it caused by I didn't plant them deep enough since I only dig half of normal hole planting KOs around 4 huge pine trees ( a lot of tree roots, not being lazy). The last 2 winter here were really cold. The mulch really help roses to stay alive if you don't plant them deep. The biggest problem I have in the past is mice and rabbit damage too. This year I put out mice posion after I found the mice damage in the early winter, it worked, not much mice damage after that, but the rabbit still eating all the roses. I did put some posion in the rabbit hole, but they still here and there making a lot of foot prints in the snow from one rose garden to the other, I hate rabbits.

summers, I have several Home Runs and they are continuous bloom and very healthy.

Thanks Patty. Where did you purchase Home Runs? I don't see them at HD and Lowe's here.

I got one from Menards. The others I got from Chamblees..

Thanks for the info. :-)

Just found in a thread, Big Red chewing gum might kill rabbits, going to the store now. It's 5F outside.

Summers, your rabbits sound really baaad, but have you ever tried lots of garlic powder on the plants and around them that you're trying to protect? We have a supermarket that sells the stuff bulk, by the pound. You could dump it down the rabbit holes, too. Your garden would smell like a yummy Italian restaurant. Our dwarf, wimpy rabbits were repelled by the garlic powder. I'm actually sad that some foxes moved in a couple of years ago, and wiped out the rabbits. Then the foxes seemed to have moved on, probably searching for better hunting grounds. I'm curious--just how does Big Red gum kill rabbits? Do you think it would kill voles or gophers? Diane

Just dumped a whole bag of gum into the rabbit holes ( 2 holes). The gum should make them chock. Will have to get the Big Red gum tomorrow, didn't find it in one store. The gum might work on gophers and voles too, but you'd need to cut it into small pieces (wear gloves, no human smell). In one thread people were using it for squirrels. Are you going to give it a try too? :-) A lot of my roses are down to the ground now due to bad rabbits. I have chicken wires on 99% DAs and small old garden roses (2yrs old bands) but when you have 500+ roses......Lowe's ran out chicken wires in Nov, I was going to buy more. The chicken wire costs $10 per roll (50ft), I think I have about 15 rolls in the yard......and if you go to Dollar Store, a bag of gum costs $1. What a great deal to control rabbits! I hope it works, will say a prayer tonight before go to bed, I am a free spirit, but I need all the help I can get. :-)

I have a Mr Lincoln made it through the winter to the tip with winter protection. I just removed the leaves from my other 20 roses. They had winter protection which consisted of wind blocks filled with leaves from Jan 5 to March 5. The Knockout just had a wind block next to it.

It is so exciting to be reading about your garden starting to come alive again after your cold winter and such great news about your mr. Lincoln Samuel!