Very nice! I really like the roses, and the textures and colors of the foliage across the driveway.

Bill

Very impressive display, tree_oracle! I have a Knockout question for you since you're not that far up the road from me and we have a similar climate. My Knockouts (original and Blushing mostly), bloom beautifully in spring and fall, but always take a break in mid-summer. I figured it was the heat and maybe drought, but that excuse doesn't seem to work if your Knockouts bloom continuously.

Mine aren't in full sun, but considerably sunny, and I fertilize with Rosetone every month. I don't prune them so they're BIG, but I do deadhead sporadically. Do you have a secret regimen? More fertilizer? More water? Heavy pruning?

Thanks
Claire

That's so sweet that your daylily is named for your daughter! It is a pretty daylily.

Claire,

All of my Knockouts are on the west side of the house so they get some serious sun exposure during the summer. There are no trees in my front yard big enough to block the sun, either. I don't give mine any supplemental water but early in the season I put down around 4 inches of compost around them. This no doubt serves as a mulch to help retain the water around them. I get the compost from the local transfer station aka the dump. I had it analyzed last year and it was very high in organic matter, potassium, and phosphorus all of which are going to help bloom production. As far as pruning, I do go after them with reckless abandon. They would be monsters if I didn't. At bud break in the spring I prune them to about half of their size. Then after they put on their spring show (this year was one for the ages), I take the hedge clippers and prune off all of the clusters of hips. I mainly only prune off the clusters but I'll also prune off just some regular growth to give the bush a nice rounded shape. I try not to prune off the new shoots that are going to produce flowers, though. The second pruning is not quite as drastic as the first but it's still substantial. This leads to another flush like I'm seeing now. I'll repeat this again later this month and I should get another flush in late September/early October with quite a few blooms in between flushes. Here's a pic from a few years ago when the Knockouts were much smaller that gives you an idea of what they look like in October. They have many more blooms now during the October flush. I think they look good with the pumpkins and other fall colors.

I really like the effect of the several different pinks of the different roses mixed together. That's something I'll have to remember.

Those last two photos are another great illustration of the use of foliage to add interest to the garden.

Thanks for the photos! I love getting a peak at others' gardens.

Thanks, tree_oracle, so your roses also bloom in flushes. I get confused when people talk about "continuous bloom"; "continuous" to me means the same show every day.

I put down my own compost in the fall and fallen leaves are welcome on top of it. Some of the leaves will be removed in the spring but most of the topping remains as mulch. I don't add more compost in the spring, but the Rosetone provides nutrients.

I suspect that the pruning is the difference. My roses are monsters, and I like them that way. I don't want to be the tallest thing in my garden (although the way things are going I may end up the shortest). As mature beasts, my roses probably have less new growth to produce blooms and have gotten settled in their ways. They produce respectable flushes at a measured pace.

Claire

Re: Knockout

Here is what I do:
1. In early spring (forsythia shows yellow, but not in full bloom yet) I cut them down to 2.5-3'.
2. June. First flush. 4 weeks. At that time they are in 4-4.5' range.
3. Deadheading all clusters. Selective pruning to 3.5-4'.
4. July-August. Intermediate, but still decent flowering. Deadheading as time permitting + selective pruning of 'too fast too tall' shoots.
5. September. Second flush. It lasts the whole 5 weeks with ocassional deadheading. 5-5.5' tall.
6. October-November. Intermediate flowering. 6'.
7. See #1 ;-)

Almost full sun, plenty of water, no feeding whatsoever, but good quality soil to begin with.

Thanks, George (ego45). It makes much more sense that Knockout roses bloom in discrete flushes rather than the continuos display hyped in the catalogs.

I may be over fertilizing, but my soil is sandy loam and nutrients drain through. Not to mention the hungry tree roots that sneak into some of the garden beds. I'm seeing new red growth so the roses are gearing up for another flush.

Claire

I would still consider Knockouts to be everblooming. I've never had any rose including floribundas that even approach the bloom rate of Knockouts. They may not meet the definition that you have Claire of "the same show every day" but mine are fairly close to that. The difference is subtle. It's a lot of blooms vs absolutely covered in blooms. Once they get going in the spring, they are never without a lot of blooms until November. My routine is similar to ego45 in that I feed the soil with compost and I prune roughly the same way. I haven't even watered mine this year and they still haven't skipped a beat. I've found that if I feed them with fertilizer and water them too much that put on too much growth too quickly sometimes at the expense of flowers.

I have no problem with "everblooming", and I dearly love my Knockout roses even though they're now mostly resting (as are my rugosas, although both Blanc Double du Couberts have a few blooms ). With a more aggressive pruning schedule the KO's would probably be glorious now, but I'm constitutionally unwilling to keep cutting them back (my personal quirk).

I just think that when a rose is advertised as being minimal maintenance and still everblooming people should know that one or the other has to give a little.

Claire