Yes, prune off the dead brown canes above the green canes. You can cut off the green canes too to make your 5 KOs look the same. My KOs almost all die to the ground this year, I have very bad rabbit and mice damage.

In agreement with summers. Except in my zone KO’s are winter killed all the way to the ground every winter. I just cut off every thing above th e soil line and they will regrow. I do not winter protect them so perhaps if you cared to do this there may be some cane left in spring.

They look pretty much like mine do right now and I am in SE Mich.

Mine took a hit this winter also. A lot of dead on them. My largest I had to cut almost all the way to the ground. SW PA. We had normal cold and snow this winter, but had wicket wind. Which was abnormal.

Ellatiarella, are you the new admin user for rose forum?

Thanks everyone. Good to know I'm not alone. We cut back the dead ones until we saw signs of life. Fingers crossed on some good growth this year to get them back to size.

Mine look like this too in z5b Mass. They're definitely not as hardy as the marketing would lead you to believe. I don't even try to grow the original red Knockout since it completely dies every winter. I do have the Radler climber Cloud 10 and that went through winter with minimal cane damage.

sharon

This is totally typical for Knockouts as well as many other roses that survive in cold zones. Get used to cutting off the dead bits and the roses will not notice the canes that are gone, but you'll both be happier with them trimmed out. Just cut back to the point where you have leaves sprouting from the canes and keep an eye out in case the rose abandons a little more cane beyond where you cut later in the spring. It's expected and you're doing great as a novice DIY landscaper.

Cynthia