What is your general location? Thanks!

I'd be concerned on how much sun they are getting... Maybe not enough??? Roses like 6+ hours of sun per day IMO...

I am located in the south (zone 8a). They are in the front of the house and receive a pretty good amount of sun. A few people on my street have knockouts as well, and they look great - nothing like mine! We also have fairly acidic soil in my area, if that's a factor. Honestly it looks like these were planted and never pruned, so I don't know if that could be what it is. You can't tell in the picture, but one of the roses has a ton of leaves and smaller shoots at ground level behind the thickest tall cane as well as the other tall, thinner...I think they're part of the same plant but again, I'm new at this.

Hi Jessica,

They look like they could use some pruning to me. This would be a good time of year to do it. Do a search on youtube about pruning and you'll see some good videos. Paul Zimmerman has some good rose care videos there. I think I'd cut them back by about 1/3 or up to 1/2. If you don't have pruning shears you can get some at The Dollar Tree at this time of year and they work pretty well. I'd feed them and put some mulch around them.

Hi I'm in Florida and this state is knockout crazy!! I'm sick of them honestly Bc everyone's got them but I can tell u from experience. they do their best when pruned back once a year and it helps keep them bushy also. So you if u cut them back and give them a little organic fertilizer they should grow back much bushier, healthier and prettier It's recommend here in Florida to cut them back once a year to restore their health n beauty . Not to the ground but depending on how tall they are really depends on how much u trim

Around here winters usually cause fair amount of cane dieback so they have to be pruned low some years. Most are bushy around here. Your knockouts might not of been pruned for a long time from the looks of it.

Best of luck!

Hi Jessica

Can you that another photo of the top knockout. On the left side about 18 inches up where the bunching growth is located. I'm not sure whats going on there. Other than that a good pruning is called for. When pruning cut back to where the center of the cane (pith) is white. As mentioned above check how much sunlight they receive and may be a covering of mulch just keep it back a bit from the rose canes.

Paul Zimmerman does have some of the best pruning videos out there and it is much easier to see him prune and explain at the same time.

Try if you can to post that additional photo. So we can be sure your knockout does not have a disease.

Yes, now is the time to prune them. I would take off at least 1/3rd of the height of each long cane. Don't worry about pruning buds - in warm climates like ours, we always have to prune off buds in the winter pruning. Also, I would weed out any weeds which are within, say 20 inches of the base of each rose bush. Then I would feed them - use any rose food (NO POISONS - just food) - follow the directions.

Thanks everyone! I do have some loppers and will prune them, and I'll definitely check out Paul Zimmerman. As far as the top photo where there it bunching growth, I will try to get a better picture tonight. I think the picture might be deceiving - there are several smaller canes behind the largest one and the leaves from those look like a bunch of random growth in the photo. As for how much to cut off - the tallest canes of the biggest plant are a bit taller than me (5'4")...will cutting 1/3 to 1/2 be enough? They are just SO spindly. Thanks again!

Hi all - I just pruned them down by at least half and got rid of the small weak branches. I noticed each plant only has one nice thick, strong cane. Is this normal?? The rest are thin...

Here is what this 3 year old Double Knockouts look like right now 4ft x 3ft... Ours just starting to get leaves in our climate and I have not pruned yet... Regular Knockout grows 5ftx4ft-5ft around here...

Hello, I used organic fertilizer and 2 tbsp's or blood meal on each plant. This is the 3rd season for the Know Out roses. I had my house spray washed last week and no we see that we have a lot of yellow leaves. They don't look good. I fertilized about 2 weeks ago. Are the yellow leaves, in your opinion, from the outdoor Clorox in the cleaning solution? Or did I put a tbsp too much in blood meal in the soil? I cut them all down today by half to clean them up and watered thoroughly. Do you think I'll be alright? Thank you!

Chris I am not sure what part of the country you are in which can make a difference. If it is getting hot where you are ( 90s) all you need to do is keep them well watered, they should come back nicely. I do not know what exactly caused the yellow leaves as there are many reasons, but it probably was not the blood meal.

That Clorox probably did not help. Do hose them off really well. Good luck.