Rose Knock Out(R)
A couple of Knock Outs blooming away in June.
* Common name: Shrub rose Knock Out(R)
* Botanical name: Rosa ‘Radrazz’
* What it is: My favorite plant of all time and the last one I’d let you steal from my yard. So don’t try it. This low-care rose is a superb landscape shrub that’s a non-stop blooming machine from May to frost in a neon cherry color that fades to pink. New leaves are red. Summer foliage is green and glossy. Nice, dense, rounded growth habit and needs no spraying. Hard to kill. What more do you want? A version with double the petals? That’s available, too… look for Double KNOCK OUT.
* Size: 4 feet tall and wide.
* Where to use: Ideal in front foundations or any sunny or even partly sunny bed or border. Also makes a colorful hedge. The only semi-bad thing I can say about Knock Out is that it has thorns, so the only place not to use it is near traffic areas where someone may brush or back into it.
* Care: Forget the sprayer. Once established, KNOCK OUT is extremely heat-, cold- and drought-hardy. Prune out a third of the oldest canes and cut the rest of the bush back to 8-12 inches at the end of each winter. If you’re a neatnik, trim or snip off the spent blooms in summer to keep immaculate. Otherwise, new flowers will keep covering up the spent blooms all season. Ignore Japanese beetles or temporary mite damage… plants will grow through these cosmetic setbacks and start blooming again when the coast is clear.
* Great partner: Front with perennial purple salvia such as ‘May Night’ or with any of the dark-leafed coralbells. Also a good little brother: blue-blooming catmints ‘Walker’s Low’ or ‘Kit Kat.’
Flowers of Double Knock Out.