Landscaping with Knock Out Roses

As a landscape designer and garden center employee, I am constantly asked to suggest plants that bloom all summer. My first suggestion is always shrub roses, specifically Knock Out roses. Introduced in 2000, these roses changed the game by boasting little to no deadheading, continual blooms for up to nine months, and resistance to common rose pests and diseases.

Seventeen years later, new varieties of these low maintenance, reliable bloomers have become very common in the landscape. Brighter Blooms Nursery specializes in Knock Out roses and other highly sought after, unique plants. Upon delivery, their 1-3 gallon potted Knock Out roses are ready to be planted and provide immediate blooms in your landscape. Knock Out roses grow well in full sun to part shade in U.S. zones 5-10.

Once established, they have proven to be quite drought resistant. While they are known to be self-cleaning, it may be necessary to prune or deadhead them sometimes, just to keep them looking their best. However, gardeners need not fear the task of cutting these roses, as they recover quickly from pruning mistakes.

Low maintenance does not mean no maintenance; all roses benefit from regular fertilizing. Knock Outs will look their best when fertilized monthly or bi-monthly with a well-balanced rose food. Knock Out roses can play several roles in the landscape. They serve well as foundation plantings, colorful border plants, low hedges or even specimen plants.

Because of their continual blooming, Knock Out roses often provide some of the only color in the garden between spring- and summer-blooming plants, or as summer flowers fade and plants are just beginning to turn their autumn hues. For this reason, they are often mixed into flower beds. Whether a formal bed or cottage garden style, Knock Out roses seem a perfect fit. They even attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds for pollinator friendly gardens.

Growing 4-7 feet tall and 2-3 feet wide, they can unique height to flower gardens. Knock Out rose shrubs make excellent specimen plants in formal gardens, especially when centered in a circular bed and ringed with tidy, low mounding plants such as Artemisia, dianthus, coral bells or hosta. Knock Out roses also make excellent potted patio plants.

For a pleasant, relaxing scent, Sunny Knock Out roses are oftentimes planted near patios, or frequently opened windows where a gentle breeze can carry their sweet scent. Sunny Knock Out roses grow to 3-4 feet tall and wide; therefore, they can easily fit into many locations where their bright yellow flowers will stand out.

Knock Out roses can be single or double flowers. They come in red, pink, yellow and white, with each of the available hues nicely complementing each other. You can stick with one color or add variety with several. In landscaping, white is oftentimes used to draw the eye, brighten up a dark space or as a neutral color.

White Out roses are a nice addition to monochromatic gardens. Also growing 3-4 feet tall and wide, they pop out against bright or dark colored houses when used as foundation plantings. As plants that can grow in part shade, Knock Out roses of any color can be excellent border plants for yards that edge woodlands.