When Can I Move My Knockout Roses?

Growing Healthy Roses

• Careful planting, regular watering and fertilizing, and taking a few preventive measures will help sidestep most rose problems. Plant roses an adequate distance apart in well-drained soil and a sunny location; good sun and air circulation prevent most rose diseases. Thoroughly cultivate the soil, adding well-composted manure. Dig a generous planting hole and plant the rose at the correct height -- with the bud graft below ground in cold climates, above ground otherwise. Back fill the hole and irrigate well, fully saturating the root zone. Mulch to retain soil moisture. Water roses deeply as needed -- most roses require 1 inch of water per week -- and fertilize them every six weeks once bloom begins.

Growing Knock Out Roses

• Plant and start Knock Out roses varieties as you would any rose. Unlike most roses, they don't need deadheading, or removing spent flowers to encourage plants to continue blooming. Knock Out roses are self-cleaning; tired flowers will fall off on their own. Knock Out roses are also very disease resistant, meaning that even if you crowd your plants -- often the case when establishing a rose hedge -- you won't have problems with black spot, powdery mildew and other common rose diseases.

Pruning Knock Out Roses

• Once a year, after the winter's last hard frost, encourage vigorous new growth and abundant flowers by cutting back Knock Out roses to one-half or one-third of their height, as low as 12 to 18 inches. No knowledge of traditional rose pruning technique is needed; just lop them off. Knock Out roses don't need pruning otherwise, though you can trim plants back to improve a shrub's shape or to limit hedge size. Knock Out roses bloom continuously, meaning a new flowering cycle begins every five or six weeks -- so if you need to cut them back, do it near the end of a bloom cycle to avoid setting back the next cycle.

Moving Knock Out Roses

• Transplant or move a Knock Out rose to a new location only during the dormant season, at the same time you would also prune them -- after the winter's last hard frost. Prepare the new planting hole first, as if you were planting a new rose, but with a larger -- both wider and deeper -- planting hole, to accommodate the mature roots you'll be moving. Carefully dig up the Knock Out rose with a shovel, digging all around the plant, preserve as much root mass as possible. Replant the rose in its new hole and water thoroughly.