wait until the forsythia blooms in your area (it is a large shrub with yellow flowers). It should be in the next few weeks (the ones here are late this year). Double KO doesn't need anything special for pruning, hedge clippers would be fine. Use hand pruners to take out any dead or damaged canes.

My stars, what are you feeding those monsters and where do you live?? My guess is somewhere much warmer than me, since there's no way my double knockouts would ever approach that kind of height. Whatever you're doing, keep it up, as these look like very healthy happy roses, and you'll likely have a tremendous spring flush. I agree with everyone else that you should sit back, enjoy a delightful spring flush (with an optional adult beverage of your choice), then when the show dies down trim them down to a more manageable size. Conventional wisdom says to not cut off more than 1/3 of the plant at any one pruning, so if you want them to be more like 3-4 feet you might do that in two stages and let them rest and recover in between. Of course, most of us ignore conventional wisdom when we feel like it, and most knockouts can be pruned with a chainsaw as needed without complaining at all. If you feed them some alfalfa hay during their rest period, they might bush out even wider, but I hesitate to suggest that since they already look like the Monster that Ate Cleveland. To keep them a relatively manageable size each spring, do as Michael says and cut out a few of the oldest canes (thickest and brownest) at the base. Keep up the good work! Cynthia

They'll be fine and bloom normally. I have several close to a road that gets lots of plowed snow. Being on top of a slope they're also exposed to winter's cold drying winds. I pruned them today and several were pruned to 4-6 inches, a few less. I still expect bloom at my natural time, late May/early June. Relax!

Our heat has been pretty high the last couple of weeks. I have many new bushes from one and two gallon pots that I planted this spring. All are own root. I check the ground an inch down before I water. If we get less that a quarter inch of rain I usually have to hand water using a wand every two days. If we get more than one quarter inch rain I wait until three to four days after the rain to water. I do have mine in beds with no grass or weeds and it is mulched so the water doesn't evaporate as fast. The key is how quickly is your ground drying out then set up a water schedule based on that. My schedule works great for me.