lois:
Greetings!Knock out roses in the south have a more pink hue
than a true red. Maybe it is just the heat/and long day's fading the bloom.Rich is closer to you maybe he has a suggestion.
Art

I agree with Art. My KO 'Radrazz' starts out red for the first blooms, then it has the deep pink/magenta look. The first year, I thought I was seeing things when the roses were a different color from the 2nd bloom in summer through frost.

I have a lot of greggii colors and 'Dark Dancer' comes closest to my roses, but greggii 'Autumn Sage' (labeled that way at nursery) is a bit lighter, but is a great companion. I have deep purple clematis (Jackmanii) growing on the fence with my roses, so that's another good color companion. The blooms of spirea 'Neon Flash' are fantastic with Radrazz roses, too.

Here are color collages that I put together when writing about magenta/deep rose/deep pink combinations in my garden.

Top left: grape gaillardia
Top middle: greggii 'autumn sage' (deep lipstick pink, can labeled only as autumn sage)
Top right: Encore Azalea
Bottom left: salvia greggii 'Dark Dancer' with pink muhly grass in fall
Bottomo right: KO Roses 'Radrazz'

Top Left: burgundy loropetalum in bloom
Top middle: calla lily
Top right: buddleia 'Pink Delight'
Bottom left: echinacea 'Ruby Star' (but 'Prairie Splendor' is better beside roses)
Bottom middle: impatiens
Bottom right: Oriental lily 'Starfighter'

Hope these colors help. Picking up color echoes, or using a hue that is lighter or darker works well.

Cameron

You're right about the color; not a true red. Up here, knockouts sit on the line between neon pink and red. What I love about the color is that you can see it from a distance. Here is the place where I put the maraschino salvia. You can see there is a lot going on there already (sorry, the knockout rose is not in the picture). The maraschinoes are in the middle behind the roses (they have not bloomed yet in this picture.)

{{gwi:322641}}

Maybe I should really be asking "Which salvia greggiis go well with dark purple, light pink and light blue, can be seen from a distance and are hardy to zone 6?".

Thanks so much!

Lois in PA

You might try some S. microphylla varieties La Trinidad, Wild Watermelon, Hoja Grande, or greggii varieties Big Pink, Pink Preference, or PlumWine. S. puberula forms Hidalgo, Yucca-Do, or El Butano are good for bigger plants (3 feet tall and higher). All of these are in the fuchsia or magenta range in color.

I did not consider S. microphylla types. For some reason I did not think they were hardy in zone 6. They seem to get taller than the greggii types - are the flowers bigger, too?

So many choices...

Lois in PA

Cerise. THAT was the color I was looking for. :o)