Denise, Landscape roses like Knockout Roses are very vigorous growers, so you prune them to give yourself some control over them. Otherwise they can get amazingly big and start looking kind of wild. The "rules" for pruning them are not necessarily the same as they are for some other roses like hybrid teas because they are landscape shrub roses. Some people don't prune them their first year because they want to get a good idea of how the natural shape of the Knockout rose is going to progress. Some folks prune them back only every other year because they want them to be huge monsters but know they have to maintain some sort of order and control. You just have to figure out what works for you and the space you have as well as the vigor of the particular Knockout you have. Some Knockout types get larger than others and some grow more vigrously. When you prune in late winter to early spring, you are doing so in order to control the shape and size of the bush, and to keep new growth coming out near the bottom of the plant. Remember that I mentioned my mom quit pruning her roses and the base of the plants became very ugly. Well, that "ugly" is what you want to avoid. If you don't prune, then the new growth comes out higher and higher every year and the bottom of the plant looks awful. I haven't grown Knockouts, but they probably should be pruned back to the 5, 6 or 7 largest canes each spring--removing what you need to in order to maintain the shape you like and that fits in with your landscape. You always remove the oldest and woodiest canes, because as they get older they just get woodier and woodier and don't look that great. Because Knockout Roses can be very vigorous growers if planted in ideal conditions, they sometimes need "corrective" pruning in the middle of the growing season when they send out an occasional limb that just shoots out from nothing to 2 or 3 feet almost overnight and is growing in the "wrong" direction, like directly into the wall of the house or a pathway or whatever. I don't think you have to deadhead Knockout blooms though, as they are self-cleaning. A friend of mine describes the more vigorous Knockouts as taking on the appearance of a drunken spider if left too long without corrective pruning, with long legs sticking out this way and that way, and she's not the only person I've heard describe them that way. I have a couple of David Austin English Roses that get that same "drunken spider" look in the middle of the summer, especially after a big rainy spell. They just send out canes out of nowhere that go this way and that way. I prune them out as needed and don't seal the cuts. They heal over just fine on their own. I googled and found you info on "Pruning Knockout Roses" and linked it below. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning Knockout Roses

Dead wood can come out any time of year. It's dead and of no use to the rose. Some people even believe it can be detrimental because it's an easy opening for disease and insects to get in. Live cane is another matter. You want to keep all the energy stored in those canes for the rose to use. Pruning off live cane in the fall is taking away potential food stores the rose will need to come back with. Of course, if it's a bad winter you may lose most of it to winter kill anyway but if it's not a hard winter, and there is a good bit of viable cane left in the spring, all that stored energy will be of good use to the rose come warm weather. And if there are a couple of freeze/thaw cycles where you lose a bit of new growth, that extra stored energy is VERY important in the rose being able to survive. If you've cut all that cane off and the rose doesn't have that extra energy to restart again after a late hard freeze then your rose will be toast!

I thought maybe there was a reason why it got leggy already. I've heard high nitrogen fertilizer or even hard clay soil can cause those problems...Besides not enough sun...And winterkilled canes that were never pruned out...Rose bush itself not growing right...etc.... I have 7 Double Ko's and 5 are nice and bushy but two of them grew more lanky and runty so I replaced those two this year... (they were 3 years going on 4 same as our other ones came from same vendor and they got plenty of sun and were in good locations...) I transplanted them elsewhere this past late March so they can be runty if they wish now...lol But yes prune them back and see if that corrects the problem... Hopefully it does :)

Kali, just in case she does not see your question. It refers to a set of leaves. So you find a set of leaves on the cane that point in the direction that you would like a branch to grow. Right in the nook where the leaf set is connected to the cane on the top side. That is where there are growth nodes that can grow into branches. A rose likes too start new growth from right below where you cut/prune. As that is where the rose will concentrate its growth hormones. Where I live there are an abundance of cane borers. If these are active in your area it is best to place a drop of regular elmers glue on the cut surface. It helps to keep them out of the rose canes.