I forgot to mention that I live in zone 8, the Austin, Texas area.

What kind of soil are they planted in? Do you fertilize? Mulch? Have you pruned them at all? Could they be getting too much water? If you live in Austin, you should be able to find Mills Magic Rose Mix - an organic fertilizer that might help - has lots of good nutrients. You might mulch with horse compost if you can find it, prune them back by 1/3 and fertilize with a little Miracle Gro [but hurry and do it well before frost or new growth will be burned]. If you have never pruned, that might be why they look thin. Roses do have to be pruned. You might post a photo to show what they look like.....Knockouts are tough - I bet you can tweak a few things and bring them up to speed.

I water once or twice per week in the summer and maybe once every two weeks in the winter depending on the weather. The soil is not that great. It is rocky and clayish. I mixed some recommended soil in with the existing soil when I planted them several years ago but have not done much since except mulch. I used Texas native hardwood mulch which I believe helps keep the moisture in but don't know if it adds much nutritional value. I have not fed or fertilized on a regular basis but will start. Are you sure it is okay to prune them right now? I only ask because we just got hit with a cool front
that sent the tempeture into the low forties at night. If so is there any particular way I should prune other than the height?

When do you get your first freeze? If in mid/late Nov. I would very lightly trim them at the tips, give them fish emulsion, get some alfalfa pellets from the feed store, put about a cup or two around each plant, some cottonseed meal and a cup of epsom salts. This is all organic "food", wont throw them into a huge growth burst, but will add some nutrients. If you know someone with a horse stable and can get a bag or two of composted manure - that would be great to pile around them - again, organic, long lasting. Roses are heavy feeders, like to eat. With organics, they are getting benefits but not all at once. With organic mulch, food, this will get into the soil and enrich it over the winter. The Tyler Rose Garden uses pinestraw mulch - pretty much anything is good....I mulch mine with composted horse manure then put a $2/bag Home Depot shredded mulch on top - keeps them weed free and the soil cooler in summer, protection in winter. You can rake it back in spring to add fertilizer.

In spring, I put on epsom salts [this helps to make new basal breaks - new stems] and use the Mills Magic Rose Mix. It has everything I would normally mix up and use like alfalfa pellets, cottonseed meal, etc. I do this 2-3 times a year.

Basically, you are getting ready to put them to bed for the winter.....if you can just add some nutrients to them, mulch them, trim the dead wood off - oh, and do you deadhead the faded blooms? That is important to make new ones form. I have 5 old Knockouts in big pots - they are huge, bloom like mad and are very healthy. I dump compost manure on the 2x/year, water well, fertilize and they do great. If you really feel your soil is terrible and want to do something about it.....in winter you could dig the roses out, redo the soil.....thats probably alot of work....but I think you could see some good improvement with the suggestions. Oh, and they really like alot of sun. Could it be the morning sun is not quite enough for them? My roses pretty much get all day sun.....they need at least 6 hours of full sun.....that might be a problem.

Thank you very much for the information. I'm excited about these suggestions and am anxious to get started.

Hardwood mulch does conserve moisture but it ties up a lot of nitrogen decomposing on top of your soil. Best thing I can tell you is to apply your fertilizer under the mulch and not on top of it