No damage other than yellowing leaves, which then got brown, kinda crispy in fact. The death seems to happen from the top, outside of canes and then continue down until the entire cane is dried out and dead. I should add we use a watering system as needed but that most of last year it was turned off due to so much rain. The root systems are freaking amazing. They spread for ten feet or more and are healthy looking (I had to cut some to plant my new bushes). We have no RRD in my area that i am aware of and I saw no signs of anything odd other than the dead leaves. We had a HUGE amount of rain last year. Enough that my Hybrid teas (in the same yard) defoliated and stayed that way even with spray. We had almost NO sun to speak of. Winter was VERY cold for us, but this doesnt appear to be winter damage so much as something just causing entire canes to die, then the entire bush.....its something I have never seen before. They are single red knockouts. My double pink is 6 foot tall, 6 feet across. never defoliated. bloomed until Jan....its in the bed next to the hedge....I know I need to prune, and YES should have done it earlier, but I got so busy at work this hedge just got put on the back burner...btw, my Belinda's Dream Hedge is 8 foot tall already in the next bed, literally 4 feet from where the KnockOuts are. My rosebeds are framing the parking lot of my shop on three sides, then there is a sitting area with a potted rose area on the opposite side of the walkway. This is my double pink KO This is the Belindas Dream, last year. This is my shop parking lot. the top left of the photo you can a bit of the hedge. You can see where right in the middle of it there are new plants. That is where the ones died..if the entire area was in the shot, the lower left would be the Belindas Dream, and the DPKO is in the upper right. I was standing with the potted area to my immediate right, so everything is in close proximity....the only ones giving me a hard time are the KnockOuts in the hedge.....I am lost. BUT I will be pruning them back this weekend and hoping that helps. The Belinda's Dream is headed toward getting "chopped" as well. It is own root and putting out lots of new canes from the bottom, so I need to top prune it...sigh....the work is never done! LOL

Flowermum, my topics are usually intended as helpful threads for all. This one has particularly good posts. I'm glad you found it. Vikki, I'm 'way south of you. I think it's just a universal southern planting. The Knockouts are in front of Winn Dixie. They have a right turn lane cutout, so I can slow down and really look, LOL. BYW, many of the small towns here have landscape people but some have 'plant ladies' -- the plant ladies create stunning displays. Cairo, GA is where I was introduced to pentas and Iceland poppies, and actually saw delphiniums growing in one of the Bank parking lots in the shade of Crape Myrtles! Nell

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?

My test for all plants is to scratch the bark with a fingernail. If there's any visible green inside, they'll be fine and will come back in the Spring. Just trim the end, dead parts of the branches off. If no green is seen, keep moving lower on the branch and redo the nail scratch test until you see green inside. If you see no green inside the branches, all the way back to to the ground level, the plant is a goner and best to start with new plants in the spring.