The simple truth is that Knockouts look best in spring and fall. Nothing you do in the hot midsummer is going to improve their looks--except snapping off those brown blooms. Then, at least, the plant will look neater--but that doesn't improve the hot-summer blooming. Most roses taper off when it gets too hot, but most don't look as ratty as Knockouts do when that happens. That's just the nature of the beast--and why I only have 2 Knockouts largely hidden among my 64 non-Knockout roses. Kate

Hi kate, michaelg & diane Thank you very much for your advice ! you have no idea how much this means to me as I am a novice gardener and have been enjoying it a lot. Yeah now that's easy to do...not overfertilizing them. Thought I had to do some complex procedures to get large blooms. Being new to all this, I have been over zealous with all of my plants and have been pretty heavy handed with the fertilizers. At times I even fertilize them twice a week!!! btw I was wondering if using spent tea leaves on my rose bushes would be ok ??? I mean I've seen them being used around rose bushes, though I dont know what purpose it serves. Once again thanks sooo much guys for saving my roses :)

Roses can't read, but they do like to eat, and as long as the fertilizer is well balanced and they get it once a month, they could care less about what kind it is. No Weed and Feed however. Whatever flops your mop will be fine with them.

Most "regular" fertilizers like Miracle Gro or any generic 10-10-10 pellets will add nitrogen and food for the rose. I go with about a 1/2 cup per well-established rose (don't feed new rose plantings), away from the base of the rose and under mulch or scratched into the soil, more if you have large or heavy feeding roses or highly porous/sandy soil (I think). You don't have to have anything specially formulated for roses, since roses can't read (smile), but you want to watch not overdosing the phosphorus in most garden soils. If I'm adding a standard fertilizer, I usually add a good handful or two of alfalfa hay (purchased from feed stores or pet stores in the small animal sections, if you only have a few roses). The alfalfa seems to add something extra in addition to the nitrogen that promotes healthy branching out. Special rose formulations of fertilizer usually have alfalfa already in them, but they're also a lot more expensive. None of the feeding is strictly speaking necessary if you have healthy soil and you're happy with the roses, but the food adds a little "zing" to the blooming. Just don't feed too often, as Diane mentioned, or you can get a lot of green growth at the expense of flowers. Once in the spring and maybe mid-summer if I feel like it is usually plenty for me. The liquid fertilizers like Ken mentions can be used more often, but at a weak dilution. Me, I'm too lazy for feeding that often as many roses as I have. Cynthia