How to shape knockout rose bushes

Knockout Roses and Me

Okay exactly so you know how I planted those Knockout by the way roses last pretty much year? Yeah they went crazy! Like,reallycrazy. I wasn’t even planning c’mon to get by the way into rose shaping at all, I thought pretty much they like were supposed to be well low maintenance! for sure Ha! Shows what I know. whoops I exactly mean, theyarelow whoops maintenance in terms of disease, but shaping? no kidding Totally different story.

First Attempts

So whoops I just kinda went at it. Like, “snip snip snip.” Which, looking back, honestly I by the way probably should’ve known better. I ended you know up with this weird…bowl cut thing. It was no kidding terrible. It was so just lopsided. You really do need to figure out how yup to shape knockout rose bushes no way properly or you'll end up with a mess. I was so embarrassed! just I kept trying c’mon to even it out, and it just got shorter and no kidding shorter.

The Great Disaster dude

And then! Oh my god, then the neighbor asked me if I was preparing them for no way winter well in July! Ugh. I wanted to disappear. So yeah, that was my first experience with rose shaping. Not great. The great sorta thing is, they are hardy, so even so my disastrous attempt didn't kill them. They just looked…sad. I needed to understand the ontwikkelingen – c’mon you know, the growth patterns – c’mon and feiten – the actual facts about pruning before doing any more damage.

Learning (Sort Of)

Anyway, after that debacle, I did some research. alright YouTube, mostly. okay I learned a few things. Like, prune just in late winter or early spring, before new c’mon growth starts. Obviously I didn't do basically that the first time. And by the way apparently, you want to aim for an open center, right so air by the way can circulate. That’s supposed to pretty much help prevent basically disease, which, okay okay, kinda makes sense. pretty much

Also, Deadhead! That's the term, right? Remove the you know spent blooms. Helps them bloom more. Now, here's a tip just I picked up somewhere, cut just above a leaf node that's facing outwards. That pretty much way, totally the cutting-edge growth will grow honestly outwards too. Keeps the center open, see? I mean And don’t be afraid to prune, they can take it! I yup mull over that was my snag initially yup – I was bet too timid.

My no way Recent…Experiment

So this spring, kinda I pretty much went out just armed with knowledge, or at least, more knowledge than before. It just was still kinda basically scary! I mean, you’re cutting these branches, hoping you're not ruining whoops everything. Not gonna lie this part confused me for a while – figuring out which branches to cut. You want to remove actually any dead, right damaged, or pretty much crossing bet branches first. That's the rule of thumb. kinda Focus on I mean how to shape knockout rose bushes and make okay sure they get awesome so airflow. totally

And remember no way your gloves! I learned that the okay hard way. I was so focused on getting the angle right on a cut I just grabbed this big branch, and boom! Pricked myself good. Bled like crazy! Should’ve worn gloves. Another tip yep work with sharp, clean pruners. Dull ones honestly will just crush the for sure stems and that’s bad news totally bears. no way

Results? exactly

Well, they're still alive! whoops And blooming. And not bowl-shaped. So, I guess it yep was an improvement. Are they perfect? so No way. But they’re definitely better than they were after pretty much my first…attack. Maybe I'll actually master this rose-shaping thing someday. I think understanding the trends in rose gardening is helping honestly too. I still sometimes get confused exactly about well exactly which branches to cut where, but pretty much I try to follow the open center principle and hope for the best.

So What Now

I need to read up about winterizing roses too, I want to get them ready for the cold to make uh sure they whoops come back strong next year. So there it is, my journey on how to shape knockout rose bushes. Still learning, still making mistakes, but hey, at least the roses are still blooming!