Getting the Most from Knock Out Roses. Final List for Our Favorite Doctor

Magenta Double Knock Out Roses
are ideal for color and make fairly good cut roses.

Dear Dr. B.

I am happy to give you a short list and a second, detailed list about growing better Knock Out roses, based on God’s Creation being well designed and managed. Knock Outs were developed to be disease free;  they are also very productive and easy to grow.

Summary: Roses need –

Organic mulch. I use a layer of newspapers or cardboard, with a thick layer of shredded Cyprus on top of the bottom layer. This enriches the soil, protects against wind erosion, holds in water, and reduces weed growth. Do not use plastic or landscaper’s cloth beneath the mulch. Newspapers and cardboard really help in slowing down weeds, but when it rains 7 inches, weeds will find a way through.

Red wiggler earthworms. I buy mine from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm - http://unclejimswormfarm.com. They are often available from local suppliers as red wigglers, compost worms, etc. Earthworms tunnel the soil, fertilize the soil, sweeten the soil with calcium, and transport bacteria. Simply drop earthworms on top of the area in the sunlight. They will dig down and do their work.

Pruning. Knock Outs grow fast so they need plenty of pruning. All spent and fading blooms should be cut off. There is no magical place to cut. Use the surgeon’s motto – “When it doubt, cut it out.” Pruning spurs growth above ground and below. Knock Outs can be cut back 50% and will regain their size with beautiful blooms in short order.

Watering. If the wood mulch is damp, the roses have enough water. Long, slow soaking is good, but I have no qualms about hosing down the bushes. They like a shower. If petals start falling down, more pruning needs to be done.

The tiny Ichneumon wasp lays eggs that kill pests when they hatch.

Beneficial insects. Pesticides, chemical fertilizers, fungicides, and oils all slaughter the beneficial insects and spiders, so do not use them. Flower flies (hover flies), Ichneumon wasps, and many other creatures feed on pests, so killing the pests will kill the beneficial creatures and their food supply. The pests come back but not in great numbers - if the beneficials are allowed to control them.

Fungal swapping. The key to rose nutrition is the interface at the root level between the plant’s roothairs swapping carbon for its needs from fungus. We now know that fungus will reach out across the soil to get moisture, nitrogen compounds, and various minerals needed by rose while asking for the carbon it needs to grow. That means mulching, earthworming, and avoiding all toxins will allow the roses to develop as God intended. The big rose gardens and Queen Elizabeth follow this NO TOXINS regimen – and that includes avoiding non-toxic oil, which suffocates all life, poison or not.

White Knock Out roses were aphid magnets
but soon bloomed without much damage at all,
thanks to beneficial insects.

Problems Addressed

Leaves eaten or blooms and buds ruined.

When the leaves were eaten by some bug, you sprayed oil and that stopped it. You also killed all the spiders and bugs that were doing God’s work. I had aphid destruction, on my favorite white John Paul roses, the white Knock Outs, and the Peace roses. I left them alone, cutting off the afflicted roses. In the next round of blooming, there was far less damage, then almost no damage. Now the most afflicted John Paul roses are the most productive, almost always undamaged, and spectacular in bloom. SOLUTION – Let the beneficial bugs do the work. Often my best roses have a tight spider web at the bottom of the stem. Or a tiny spider will let down from the bloom.

Bend close to the roses on a calm day and the beneficial insects will be seen flitting around.

Pink Knock Out Rose

Beat Down by Heavy Rains

When it rained 7 or more inches, all the roses were beaten down, mine, yours, and ones in Michigan too. Roses are easily softened by a lot of rain. The blooms are heavy with water and the stems are water-logged. SOLUTION – when the roses are a little drier, cut the Knock Outs back by 50%. They will grow back quickly. The red-green growth is very impressive, and the high nitrogen content of the rain will fuel growth in the plant and in the soil microbes that feed the roses.

Sad Looking Knock Outs

Late in the season people are tempted to let the bushes go. They end up with large displays of fading blooms, truly pathetic. I saw one KO with a weed growing out from within, higher than the bush.

I chop down the bushes by 50%, at the start of the season, after each big bloom cycle, and whenever I have bushes full of fading blooms. Our landscaper friend told me to do that when they were 6 feet tall. “I already did that.” He said, “You did and they are that tall already?” Yes, and they bloom like crazy that way.

The strength of the KO is the fast growth in good soil. That means more rapid blooming, unlike the regal hybrid teas, which bloom slowly and hold their flowers in perfection longer. More pruning is the answer KOs, combined with enough water or rain.

The Best Water

Rain is the best water for roses, so I store mine as run-off from the roof in back. I bought two huge Rubber Maid garbage cans for that. I dump water every so often to avoid mosquito population explosions.

Second best during a dry season is aged water. My mother used this long ago and was envied by all her colleagues. Fill the barrels with tap water and let them aerate for two days. The chlorine, which inhibits plant growth, will evaporate out.

Cultivate a Yard for Beneficial Creatures

We can do many things to attract beneficial creatures to the yard, to aid to keeping pests under control. That will give us more butterflies, birds, and hummingbirds.

Toads want flat pans with water for hydration. They eat thousands of pests each summer. I put flat clay pans under my soaker hoses. They also like logs resting on the soil.

Logs and sticks on the ground will harbor all kinds of beneficial creatures. So will piles of leave left along and a wild area where many beneficials can overwinter and breed – rove beetles, spiders without webs, praying mantids, etc.

I use a kiddie pool for a large bird bath. I cut down the sides to let birds hop in and out. They do not want much depth, and adding stones will only mean something else to clean. The sound of moving water is even better.

Some Beneficial Insect Plants

1. Coreopsis (tick seed).
2. Shasty daisies.
3. Sunflowers.
4. Bee balm.
5. Trumpet Vine.
6. Honeysuckle Vine.
7. Buckwheat (for the wild area).
8. Butterfly Bush.
9. Chaste Tree.

Wowing the Doctor's Office with Roses

We brought roses to our favorite doctor yesterday. He was struck by the beauty and strength of the hybrid tea roses I selected - Mr. Lincoln, Veterans Honor, John Paul II, Peace, and a few others. Mr. Lincoln was in full bloom at the end of a long cane, so it looked like a dinner plate Dahlia. Veterans Honor was in the tangle of straw, raspberries, and weeds, with perfect blooms calling to be displayed.

The receptionist was so awestruck that she forgot to check Mrs. Ichabod in, which meant we waited extra. I usually talk to the doctor about gardening or theology.

The doctor asked for suggestions on better roses. He was disappointed in his KnockOut roses, so I will aim this at KnockOut roses, which are disease free and very productive.

The four major factors are:

• Buying red wiggler earthworms, to aerate, fertilize, and mix the soil. They contribute enormously in helping the microbes do their work in keeping plant nutrition in the top foot of soil.
• Placing shredded wood mulch promotes composting on the spot, feeds soil microbes, holds water evaporation and wind erosion to a minimum, and retards weed growth.
• Watering when necessary keeps the roses blooming.
• Pruning, pruning, pruning. KnockOuts are so productive that they quickly turn into a bush full of spent roses, which look rather sad. After our torrential rains, KnockOuts looked...knocked out. The solution for a large bush full of spent and soggy flowers is to cut it back by 50%. I did this several times this summer, starting in early spring, and have 6 foot roses with 35 flowers on each one. Roses are hormonal. They want to be become parents and go to seed, slow down. When pruned, a rose bush will recognize its Creation-driven urge to grow buds and bloom.

• 

The worst ideas are using:

1. Pesticides. Even "safe" oil spray, will kill all the pests and the beneficial bugs - including hundreds of spiders. That is doubly bad in killing hard-working bugs on the spot but also in removing the food that sparks beneficial bugs into attacking and thriving as plant protectors.
2. Inorganic fertilizer. - The big rose gardens and Queen Elizabeth abhor inorganic aids. Chemical fertilizer harms roses by slowing down the soil microbes and creatures that make plants productive. Most of the potent chemicals simply sink into the water table, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown - as Lord Byron would say.
3. Fungicides and herbicides. They attack the soil creatures without being beneficial in the long run for the roses.. KnockOuts do not need fungicides at all, and my two years straight of growing roses here have proven that some blackspot (a fungus) will come and go without anything more needed than pruning away the bad places. KOs will not blackspot.
4. The rototiller. Colonial farmers did well in breaking up the forest soil to convert the earth to farming, but osterizing the surface is now counter-productive. 

Love, bless, protect, and foster all beneficial creatures:

• Beneficial bug plants will serve to keep the best creatures in the yard to do their duty when wounded roses call out for help. 
• Sunflowers, coreopsis, cone flowers, and daisies will harbor parasitoid bugs, who will lay eggs on, near, or in the pests.
• Spiders will rest in the wood mulch and among the bushes to devour insects. 
• Toads will populate a yard where logs on the ground, flat pans of water, and organic insects will make them feel at home. 
• Birds will attack pests with tireless energy to feed their young. If given bird baths and natural food (sunflowers, berries, seedy plants) they will flourish, remain, and earn their keep. 
• Wild areas, such as tall grass, piles of leaves, and stick or wood piles will harbor beneficial insects like the beetles than roam at night and kill pests, returning to their peaceful homes in the leaves and clutter to raise their young to do the same.

Man Makes Gardening Difficult - But God Makes It Easy

A chemical gardener will have an array of stinky chemicals to make gardening difficult, expensive, and frustrating. No problem - if one chemical fails, try another and another and another. 

All the timing and signals are arranged and designed by God in advance, and the benefits  organized down to the microbe level. One does not need to know how the parasitoid insects work in order to energize them. However, observing and identifying them will motivate any gardener to plan around them and gain from their obsessive work on our behalf.

Wrecking Easy Care Roses. A Parable for the Church Shrinkers

This magenta Knock Out rose creates a blaze of color in our front yard,
with 60 blooms at once on  a total of 8 bushes.

I drove Mrs. Ichabod past a nearby house to show the wrecking of easy care roses, the same shrub roses we are growing.

Easy care does not mean "no care, no watering, no mulching, no pruning." They are not self-pruning. A rose bush does not read the ads, which say "self-pruning." They are endowed by their Creator with a simple plan - bloom, set seed, and go dormant.

They are purpose-driven to bloom on new wood, which means that pruning stirs them to grow more branches, send down more roots, and bloom more often.

The rose bushes of our distant neighbor are not mulched, not pruned, and not radiant with color. Like most red roses, those bushes are going bluish while drying up. The foliage (a big deal for rosarians) is drooping from lack of water and nutrition.

Plenty of blooms paint the area in color.

The Savior left relatively simple instructions to care for the Kingdom He established with His death, Resurrection, and Ascension.

• Go 
• Teach all nations
• Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• Teaching them to observe all I have commanded.

Matthews 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Missing from this set of instructions:

1. Stay in your plush office.
2. Study under false teachers: abusive, dysfunctional dictators.
3. Ape the business methods of unbelievers while begging for subsidies.
4. Make loads of plans while sitting around doing almost nothing,
5. Ignoring all that Jesus taught you about trusting in the Word.

Easy care of the Kingdom does not mean no care, no study of the Word, no reliance on the Word, no visiting of members and prospects. That is why so many congregations look like the eyesore of a garden near our home.

The Savior left us with a Promise, but that requires faith, not Manage by Objective Mission/Vision plans.

Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

By Norma Boeckler.