19.11.09

Knock Out Roses with Black-eyed Susans



While driving to and from the grocery store on Saturdays, I listen to 610's weekend call-in gardening program.  A couple years ago, I liked what I heard about Knock Out Roses.  They came so highly recommended.  I couldn't resist!  They were also reasonably priced.  I bought mine from Wal-Mart.

For me, hybrid roses have always been a challenge.  Although there is nothing quite like the grace, fragrance and beauty of a cultivated rose, I have had limited success with this flower.

In recent years, if the leaf spot didn't make make them unsightly, then the Japanese beetles did.

Sometimes, both disease and insect rendered my two hybrid rose bushes looking like something that had survived a war zone.

The Knock Out roses have had no leaf spot and the beetles don't go after them the way they do the hybrids.

Virtually carefree, this variety is compact, blooms continuously well into Fall and is fragrant. A perfect plant to grow around a deck.