True Bloom line roses vs. Knock Out line roses?

Moses, Pittsburgh, W. PA., zone 5/6, USA

11 months ago

last modified: 11 months ago

Do you think True Bloom roses will surpass the Knock Outs in popularity?

Moses

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BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14)

11 months ago

In a word: NO. I think Knock Out is entrenched in the public mind, and dominates all the major sales channels. It’d be harder to replace than Kleenex as the leading tissue paper. True Bloom as a group probably aren’t nearly as strong growers as Knock Outs, and vigor/recovery is a big part of ’easy care’. I tried True Inspiration and it was actually one of the weakest things I’ve ever planted, slow growth, thin stems , lack of repeat , droopy stems (makes Bolero look like rebar!). My name for it was Truly Insipid, but perhaps some of the others in the series are better. I despise Knock Out, in particular Star Roses marketing that led to the RRD epidemic in the urban centers and suburbs. I can’t look at them without thinking about the disaster they caused, but they’re here to say.

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Comments (6)

a1an
11 months ago
Does the general public even know if it's a KO or a True Bloom?

Here in GW, there are peeps who come here to YAK about roses on a forum.

Then you have the majority who shop at big box stores

I suppose the enthusients/hobbyist grower would know there are different cultivars but to what percentage of the masses is it's just a rose and what color do I pick up;
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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?
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You sound like me when I first planted my BB and KO's last summer! lol. I have around 7 KO's and 1 BB. When I received my BB bush last Spring it said to keep it in the pot until Fall, and to plant it in the ground before a frost. And that's what I did and now the plant is several feet tall and wide! The KOs really do need as much sun as you can give them. Mine get sun from morning to night but I think they'll do well in 5-6 hours of sun. This is a new bed we built this year, so excuse the messiness of it, we'll make it better looking next summer. It's near our barbed wire fence and on the other side are weeds from a small pasture area. The red knockout on the left we planted last year, and it doubled in size this year. The other KOs were planted this year. The yellow Rose is the one that's just now starting to bloom. I have the other KO's in my other flowerbed. And they love water! Butterfly bush which is just now starting to bloom. Looking down the fence line.
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Home Run is an excellent shrub--just as bs resistant as Knock Outs, but a bit more continuous blooming and, in my opinion, has slightly more attractive blooms, although the blooms are singles. The one thing I would warn about is that Home Run has some really sharp thorns. You might want to plant them somewhere else where there isn't a lot of traffic and get yourself 2 more Knock Outs for lining the path. However, if the path is wide enough that visitors are not likely to brush against the roses, then I guess I would put the Home Runs first on each side--since they bloom a bit more regularly. Both types will have a down period as they rest before the next blooming cycle, but Knock Outs have a longer down time. Here are my Home Runs forming a short border between my neighbor's property and mine. No one walks over there except the lawn guy. The HRs, fully grown, are about 3.5 ft tall, maybe approaching nearly 4 ft tall, in my region. Hope that helps. Kate
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Markay MD-Zone 7A (8A on new map)
11 months ago
I love my Ping Lim roses so when i saw these at Home Depot, I got s True Sincerity. It’s only been in the ground gor a month, but so far the foliage is very healthy and it is starting to set buds. Time will tell, but I don’t see the big marketing push that we saw with Knockouts and building a brand takes a lot if marketing work so it is hard to see them surpassing the Knockouts.

I am so biased against knockouts that I find myself giving other Rad roses a pass even though they look like they have potential - like Orchid Romance.
Moses, Pittsburgh, W. PA., zone 5/6, USA thanked Markay MD-Zone 7A (8A on new map)
Roses In Clay
11 months ago
I never heard of True Bloom and I understand anything popular gets hate also but I really like my double pink knockout. I'm not biased because I got my rose bug before I knew Knockouts were "mainstream" and bought 1 with my 1st 30 rosebushes. My 1st 30 include many of my favorites incl my dbl pink knockout! I have 100-200 rosebushes. Took this pic today but it's nearing the end of a bloom cycle so many are old. As an attractive landscaping shrub it's wonderful. Not a cut flower.
jim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
11 months ago
NO!
philipatx
11 months ago
last modified: 11 months ago
I like the Kleenex analogy, Ben. ;-)

It's not that KO is a bad rose. On the contrary. But folks who know anything about roses are beyond burned-out on them, and with good reason. (I'm with you, Markay. I think I subconsciously snub anything with the association of KO. ...And don't even get my started on Star Roses and the "utilty patent" they slapped on "Petit".)

It blows my mind that folks who don't seem to open their eyes very often are still saying, "Oh, look at that pretty shrub. I wonder what it is," and landscapers who seemingly self-lobotomized years ago still use KO's so heavy-handedly. The ubiquity certainly provides the stepping stones for RRD to spread to every suburban home in America.

I dare say that KO has surpassed Dr. Huey as America's most ubiquitous rose cultivar. ;-)

I do feel there are more attractive and comparably healthy plants out there, though admittedly few can check *all* the boxes for health, bloom power, color and drought resistance on an own-root rose. (Honestly, I prefer KO's grandparent Carefree Beauty to the pink KO, and I think Radler's Carefree Sunshine may be superior to his Sunny KO. In my climate, Kardinal Kolorscape has *much* more attractive foliage than KO, though its deep velvety blossoms do suffer under the Texas Deathstar. I haven't planted out Miracle on the Hudson to compare it, but I think it too might prove a better plant for me...)

K.O. has been a cash-cow for Star Rose, and even though the patent should have expired years ago, they are still getting good money for the KO series . They will milk it for eternity if they can, and no other brand will be able to compete on the same level in view of the reputation and power behind the KO brand.

But enough about the Star Juggernaut. Please tell me about your experiences with Ping Lim's new offerings! I've looked at them, but haven't found adequate info. Also, I saw for the first time a new line of offerings in honor of Loretta Scott King that looked quite healthy at Lowes, and about which I know nothing

True Bloom line roses vs. Knock Out line roses?

BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14)

Comments (6)

a1an

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