I am a first year gardner, and I got mad at my Knockouts because they had black spot last year I had cleaned the leaves away and cleaned up the entire area...free of any dieased leaves, and this year they had black spot on their canes.....So, I hacked them back to about 6 inches, in March, and now they are soooo healthy looking....and I started treating them now for black spot....I figured it is better to start controlling it now. and not let it get a headstart. Whether they will bloom, I dunno, but the bushes look great and healthy! :)

It's hard to tell without looking at your soil, but I am going to make a guess based on my own difficult experience. My garden soil is terrible, a gluey, rockfilled mess that has been amended by myself and the previous owner, but I slowly learned with the overwhelming mess of clay and bottomless number of fill rocks large and small, the amending wasn't nearly enough. I did learn to dig, dig, dig in more organics AND, based on a comment in a rose book, add Perlite. You see, things would be fine in the cooler spring temps, but when the temps soared, that airless rocky clay just seemed to be choking the life out of the bushes. Plus, I later read that iron moves particularly slowly in heavy clay, and sure enough by late summer some of my bushes began to have typical lack-of-iron symptoms (chlorosis). My symptoms were poor sad growth, and some bushes would just die. I also had a disgusting grub problem, I would dig up the soil and there was grub after disgusting grub I mashed. Then I treated my garden with milky spore disease. All the amending, perlite, and milky spore disease seems to have improved things, but the improvements continue, and it IS back-breaking work. So I am wondering if you have lousy soil + you said your garden is at the base of a hill, so maybe you have water pooling there drowning/suffocating the roots. And the problem is really showing up as the temps rise?

The blooms are brown because they are spent. You can remove those to encourage new growth. The plants look healthy. When you plant or transplant, you can't really expect blooms right away. The roses will be concentrating on putting down roots so they can absorb the water you are giving them. I'd cut down the watering (unless the ground is dry) and just give them time.

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