Knock Out Roses

The Fearless Rose is a Knock Out!

By Mark S. Bowne

Throughout the centuries, roses have always evoked a rainbow of emotions; from the passion of a red rose on Valentine's Day to the anger and pain of a pricked finger by the cruel thorn. Fear; however, remains the emotion many gardeners associate with roses. Fear of pests, fear of disease, and fear of pruning. These fears may cause even the hardiest of plant lovers to run screaming from the nursery. Fear no more.

Enter the Knock Out rose. The so called 'no fear rose'. Bred by Mr. Bill Radler (one time director of Boerner Botanical Gardens of Milwaukee, WI) these roses are as tough as they are beautiful. Both resistant to pests and disease, Knock Out roses bloom spectacularly from May to hard frost of late fall. They are classified as a shrub rose and grow to about four feet tall, by four feet wide in a mounded form. They are very easy to grow. Simply cut them back to a foot tall in early spring (this keeps them bushy and compact) and feed them with your favorite rose food. I recommend Rose Tone for Espoma. Overhead irrigation is acceptable, but excessive water will reduce bloom and could rot this rose. It is very drought tolerant once established. You never have to deadhead this rose. It is self cleaning.

The history of the Knock Out rose is as amazing as the plant itself. Mr. Radler has grown roses since the age of nine and as a teenager made a promise to himself that he would develop a disease free rose. After many years and thousand upon thousand of trial roses later, Radler managed two promising candidates: the mother a shrub rose with strains of 'Carefree Beauty' and the father, 'Razzle Dazzle', an extremely disease and pest resistant plant with insignificant flowers.

Radler crossed these roses and held his breath. When the mother rose produced only one fruit (called a hip) that contained one seed, his dream almost ended. Luckily he managed to germinate this single seed and nurtured the seedling plant through the harsh Wisconsin winter. In the spring he planted the spindly rose in his trial garden not expecting much. Then it bloomed and it bloomed and it bloomed. Beautiful single red blossoms that never stopped.

In 2000, The Conard-Pyle Company of West Grove, Pa, (a wholesale nursery) introduced the new Knock Out rose to the horticulture industry. It was an instant hit and won the prestigious 'All American Rose Selection' award from the American Rose Society. The wholesale nursery's initial production run was for 135,000 plants. Today millions are grown. This makes the Knock Out rose the hottest selling rose in history.

Whether it's the original single red, the blush, the pink or the new double blossoms, plant this rose and FEAR NO MORE!