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| Veterans Honor looks velvety in the garden, not just red but RED! The rose glows in the middle of the greenery. |
I was doing some routine pruning when I came across one rose after another to bring inside. Veterans Honor simply glows red in the midst of green foliage, and the fragrant blooms are perfect.
Mr. Lincoln grows tall produces the best buds of all, opening into majestic roses, also fragrant.
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| Mr. Lincoln grows like Jack's beanstalk: it buds and flowers like crazy. Like Veterans Honor, the blooms are fragrant. |
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| Paradise bi-color - $5 for a bare root rose. |
Today I showed Mrs. Ichabod some neighborhood KnockOut roses, which compared unfavorably to our 8 KnockOuts, 4 magenta, 2 white, 2 pink. The magenta doubles are my favorite, because of their color and vigor.
The nurseries should require a certification course before someone can buy KnockOut roses. They are disease free. They are easy to grow and vigorous, but they are not like my Pokeweed and Fireweed, requiring no additional attention.
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| The Knockout magenta double rose is about $25 at a nursery, potted. The rose is disease free. Aphids love the white ones, so the white KOs trap the aphids to feed the beneficial bugs. Soon all of them are pest free with no insecticide used. |
KnockOut roses require:
- Frequent pruning for maximum color and beauty.
- Watering - to keep up with their fast growth.
- Mulching - to keep the roots moist and fed.
- Earthworming - to increase the fertility of the soil, to improve the fungus/root interactions.
This is not a heavy burden to bear. KnockOuts are so prolific that they look sad in hot weather if left unpruned. Fading blooms can be left on for a short time, but they soon became ugly and turn to seed. A little pruning done a few times a week will make the roses a showcase for the neighborhood.
They are a great color splash between hybrid tea blooming cycles. By themselves, hybrid teas are a bit fickle. Combined with KnockOuts, hybrid tea roses make the front yard very special.
Newly opened KnockOut blooms are good for vases, too, supplying a need many have for red roses, any red rose, at any time. A few white John Paul II add contrast and fragrance.
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| John Paul II - fragrant and prolific. |