Pink Knock Out® Rose

The Pink Knockout Rose is a beautiful plant with single, bright pink blossoms covering it from spring to fall. It never grows too tall, staying just 3 or 4 feet in height, and unlike many other roses, it is easy to grow and resistant to diseases. If you love roses, but have found them too difficult to grow, then the Pink Knockout Rose will show you how easy it is to have roses in your garden with very little effort. This is an ideal plant for drifts and clumps among your other plants, or for forming a divide between one part of the garden and another. It looks beautiful lining a path or driveway too. Space the plants 2 to 3 feet apart in a row, or when planting in drifts.

Roses are among the most beautiful of flowers, admired by virtually everyone – but they do have some issues. The main one is that many roses bloom for just a short time, or very sporadically, so that you are looking at a green bush most of the time. Not the Pink Knockout Rose – it begins blooming shortly after the new growth appears in spring, and keeps blooming right up to the frost. You will almost never see a bush without flowers on it. This plant will truly earn its place in your garden, and you will love the vibrant pink coloring, which sparkles in the sunlight, and glows in the light of evening too. If you use your garden later in the day, then pink is an ideal color, because it does not disappear in lower light levels, but glows, looking at least as attractive as it does during the day.

The second problem for many roses is disease. Your plants begin in the spring looking fresh and clean, but rapidly the leaves begin to turn black and fall off (black spot), or become covered in white powder (mildew) or black blisters (rust). The Pink Knockout Rose won’t do that – it is amazingly resistant to them. This is the result of years of careful breeding, and a major breakthrough in making roses suitable for every garden. Like other roses it may attract a few insect pests, but it is so hardy and vigorous that you will not even notice them. Your Pink Knockout Rose Tree will ignore them too, and keep blooming all summer.

Growing Pink Knockout Roses

The Pink Knockout Rose forms a bush 3 to 4 feet tall and the same size across. The leaves are a healthy, glossy green, and the vibrant flowers are produced in such profusion that they almost hide the foliage all spring, summer and fall. The flowers are produced continuously and unlike other roses, when they die they just fall off, leaving the plant constantly fresh and clean. This rose bush is hardy in zones 5 to 9, so it will grow throughout the country, from cold states to warm ones.

Planting Location

Plant your Pink Knockout Rose in a sunny location, but this is also one of a very few roses that will grow well in partial shade. If you have an area of your garden where you want a rose, but it is a little shady, then this is the rose to choose. Once established, it will grow well during regular summers, but it is important to water your bushes during dry periods, as drought will reduce or even stop the continuous flowering. This is a versatile plant, and it will grow well in many kinds of soils, even heavy clays.

Initial Care

The Pink Knockout Rose will grow strongly all the time, as it continues to produce blooms. This means that when planting your rose bush, it is wise to dig into the soil plenty of organic material like compost or rotted manure. Feed that vigorous growth with rose food, which should be added when planting, and again each spring and in mid-summer. Each spring, before the new growth starts, trim your bushes. Remove any thin branches right at the bottom of the plant, and trim the others so that they are between 6 to 12 inches long. Cut back to an outward-facing bud. Very soon, you will see strong shoots emerging, and your roses will be back in bloom in just a few weeks.

History and Origins of the Pink Knockout Rose

The original Knockout Rose caused a storm in the gardening world when it was introduced by rose breeder Will Radler. He had worked for years to make a special rose that was beautiful, easy to grow, and disease-resistant. It won the coveted All-America Rose Selections prize in 2000. This prize is not just awarded on looks, but only after growing the rose in gardens across the country. This is your guarantee of quality, and of a rose that will grow for you, no matter where you live.

In 2001, Will was looking at some of his plants growing in a nursery in West Grove, Pennsylvania, when he noticed one plant that was different. Rather than being cherry-red, like all the other bushes, it had pink flowers, a most beautiful rich shell-pink color. He quickly marked the plant, and soon propagated many more from it. This became the Pink Knockout Rose. Since then there have been many Knockout Roses, but this one remains a permanent favorite with gardeners all across the country.

Buying Pink Knockout Roses at The Tree Center

The Pink Knockout Rose is protected by patent, so it must be produced under license directly from plants guaranteed to be the correct variety. Our trees are grown from stem pieces of these closely-guarded plants. That way every tree is identical to the original. Don’t settle for any old ‘pink’ rose – if it doesn’t say ‘Pink Knockout®’, then it won’t be this fabulous rose. If you want roses, but don’t want the work most of them need, then the Pink Knockout Rose is for you. We have a good supply from a top-rate grower, but the demand for these plants is extraordinary, and our stocks will not last so order soon!