A grouping does look good. I'd plant them into the garden now so the roots can get established. Even the hardiest roses can die the first winter if the roots have not had an opportunity to grow into the surrounding soil. August is a really hot dry time to transplant a potted rose. Unless you water regularly and deep you could lose them especially if the soil falls from the roots when you transplant. Nature size and planting distance is determined by your growing zone. Pruning can be easy. After each flush of bloom, allow the flowers to fade some. Use a pair of hedge clippers and remove the dead blooms along with a inch or so of cane to shape the bush. In a few weeks new buds will form along with new growth. You'll have more flowers within a month. Yearly pruning should be done in spring. Remove winter killed canes and dieback along with any damaged ones. Cut back as far as you want to shape the bush and keep it in bounds. As much as many rosarians complain about Knock Out being the only roses available in many garden centers, their ease of growing and hardiness encourages many to grow roses again. The desire to grow roses soon entices them to try other varieties.

It may well be too late to think of it, but if you want something lower-growing, some of the Polyanthas might be your answer for generosity of bloom and low stature. In our area, China Doll has been used and used and used because it matches those requirements. For a red, there's Mutterdag (Mother's Day) and Lady Reading. Salmon Pink Margo Koster, and all the rest of the Koster sports (do "Contains" KOSTER in a HMF search, or check Vintage's catalog). I'd use any of those guys before I'd try a Knockout -- Not because I'm a snob, but because Knockouts would be such horses, and because I don't want anything that mildews. In a more modern vein, if you want something truly low-growing, I'd use Kim Rupert's lovely 'Lauren' or 'International Herald Tribune' if I wanted poiple. For White, I might use Pope John Paul (or try the white China, 'Ducher.') For Yellow, gosh, how about Julia Child? For red, I'd really go back to Mother's Day. Jeri

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

The advice you read in rose books to prune back roses to encourage growth is more relevant for hybrid teas to encourage show-type blooms and not at all necessary even for them. You can prune any rose to try to encourage it to grow into a pleasing symmetrical shape once it gets big enough, and certainly deadheading (cutting or pinching off dead blooms behind the flowers) or a periodic haircut of the outermost couple of inches of branches (if you're lazy like me) can jumpstart a rose into increasing or continuing the blooms, but it's totally not necessary. In our cold zones, some people don't realize that Knockouts can lose branches to winterkill as much as any other rose, so you have to prune out the dead wood or they look unsightly pretty quickly. I spring prune all 75 Knockouts at my church every year now after they posted a pitiful note a few years ago that their "no care" roses looked awful. All they needed was the dead wood taken out, but that is all they need yearly and they bloom more or less all season, though you can see the dead blooms after a while and they slow down as they have more dead than live blooms. I'm just not willing to commit to deadheading or edge trimming all season for that many roses not in my own yard, and they do fine. Bottom line is I'd let them grow and do their own thing, particularly in zone 7, unless you enjoy the puttering about with roses. Cynthia