I was wondering this myself a few weeks back. The following information comes directly from the Knockout Rose website:

How to Prune The Knock Out® Rose

Although it is not necessary to prune your Knock Out® Rose every year (especially if you like the size and shape), we recommend pruning your Knock Out® Rose (using sterilized pruning shears) once every three years in the Spring (after the threat of winter frost has passed).

It does not matter where the cuts are made or how much or how little you prune. This process will guarantee a cleaner and healthier plant.

Hope this helps, and "Welcome!" to the Alabama Forum!

Nelson

Come on Moccasinlanding - have you ever been that impressed with anything at Home Depot?! (Wink, wink!). BTW...how "temperamental" is Don Juan, and do you grow him "here" or "up nawth"?

Nelson ;-)

That strong boy is down heah in Mobile. It is making a big show for me this spring, as is Joseph's Coat. And my two Zepherine Drouhans, either side of an arbor over the fence gate, must have realized I intended to yank them out if they did not bloom.....and both of them were loaded up with nice big hot pink blooms. So reprieve for them. I'd already purchased two AMERICAs and one NEW DAWN and one MADAME ALFRED CARRIERE in case I had to fill in their spots. Those 4 plants overwintered in a big tub of fine grade soil, and were in bud before they ever reached the ground. I also bought a red double Knockout. I think the other red one I have is just a Knockout, not double. I found a yellow one, which fades to cream as the bloom ages, and of course the single lighter pinks. Most of these roses I put in a new bed on a clay-based hillock near the street, where they get sun all day long but are shaded late afternoons. They are already blooming their little hearts out. Yes, the Knockouts are good. They make even a rose klutz like me look good. People look at them and think I am a real gardener!

The rose bed I created about a year and a half ago in Mobile has 5 Italian cypress in it, alternating with some low dwarf Korean boxwood Green Velvet I think...Green something anyway. It is a double sided bed, since no fence is behind it, and I made it to look like it could be mine or my neighbors, if you get the idea. It is hugging the property line. And in the front I have along the flat laid old brick border, rosemary officinalis...only lost two plants. At the street end of the bed, where I made a bulbous round termination, I bullseyed a fairly tall Natchez crape myrtle...which is of course a white bloomer that gives its all for 110 days according to the information I read.

Here is a photo taken a couple of weeks ago looking down the rose bed from the street:

I bought two J&P roses last year. I hope they come back strong. One, SWEETNESS, is a tall lavender showgirl, a grandiflora, and it is unique. The STRIKE IT RICH is a rich yellow-gold, and it looks somewhat damaged still, don't know if it will make the cut this year or not.

I've decided not to feel obligated to keep a rose in my "collection" if I have to coddle it a lot. Either it earns a spot in the starting lineup, or it goes to the bush leagues.

One I'll always keep, because it was my son's favorite, is the Don Juan. Nothing can be more beautiful than its bud swelling and popping open, so red it is almost black. I think of him when it blooms on Mother's Day.