Blushing Knock Out is quite hardy. I have a number of them. What you have sounds like a typical body bagged rose bush. If the bush was stored and purchased indoors, the foliage will be tender and possibly would not survive freezing temps that could still occur in our zone. Foliage on packaged roses comes from nutrients and moisture stored in the canes. Quite often when planted in the sun this foliage will dry up and die. Once the plant begins to grow feeder roots it will replace that foliage if the plants is healthy and fresh enough. Remove the plant from the plastic and soak the bush for 24 hours in a bucket of water. If the existing foliage is very light green or yellowish it should be removed. Leaves require a lot of moisture and until those tiny feeder roots grow the only moisture available is that stored in the canes. Dormant buds on either side of the existing leaves will soon swell and replace those lost. When buying a packaged rose it best to choose one that's not leafed out or is just beginning to.

I am actually trying to get a handle on how low to prune if I want my knockouts to eventually be about 4 fet tall. Can anyone help? I just cut them back to about three feet but my hunch is that from here they'll go crazy. Two feet seems so smlll compared to where I am starting from. This will be their third year. Last summer they got to be about 5 feet and that is larger than what I want right now. The first year they were in they grew pretty slowly and last year I pruned in early April to about 2 feet and they grew to about 5 feet. Should i go back to 2 feet if i want an outcome of 4 or should I go to three feet and then cut back in the summer if they are larger than I want?

For thyme2dig: 'Mariessii' has been in the ground since 2003. Please beware--I just lost one that had been in my garden for over 12 yrs due to viburnum leaf beetles. At my request, DH cut it down to 18" only yesterday. Hate to use chemicals, but this required drastic measure to save the viburnum. Applied Bayer 3 in 1 for roses. Will apply imidiclopid (for grub prevention usually) in the next few days. Hope these measures can save it. As for the photo with the 2 wiegelas--the dark pink blooms in the upper right belong to rhododendron 'Nova Zembla'.

Knockouts get to 6' after a few really good seasons without deep freezes. Plus side is you can prune to size/shape. Little Lime can also achieve 6'+