When I worked at a garden center years ago, they had Knock Out Roses always in stock for sale. I recall Knock Outs were easy care, disease resistant, and great repeat bloomers, but for some reason, I can not remember exactly what made them special, other than they were really reliable compared to other fancier roses. I’d walk around looking at them at the nursery outdoors, leaning down to read the tags and smell the blooms, and always admired them, but I had never seen a compact variety of Knock Outs Roses until last year.

That was when I spotted the new member of the Knock Out family – last summer at a local nursery. Because I was familiar with the Knock Out logo and pots (from years ago), it caught my eye right away from a distance, and I thought, “Is that a miniature or smaller rose by Knock Out?” Long story short, I grabbed a few because the smaller new size, called Petite! Knock Out, is well suited for patio pots and container gardens for our summers here in Connecticut. I also knew that my customers would like traditional rose blooms in their outdoor planters. It would be a nice addition to the urban outdoor setting with various planters throughout the area.

The Petite Knock Out rose color is a beautiful intense deep red (their website refers to it a “fire-engine red”), and the plant’s tag indicates its mature size would be about 18″ tall, and that really is perfect for patio pots and containers, plus roses are sun lovers. These required about 6-8 hours of full sun and my customer’s site is definitely a sunny location. Another aspect is these are easy to carry to my location and plant, which is a side bonus for me as a container garden installer. And it would bloom all summer into fall (long-bloomer candidate!). What’s not to love?!

I usually don’t plant or play with roses too much. Some will say roses are for experts and/or I know roses may develop issues, insects, or diseases but the thought of using a smaller, more compact, or miniature rose from Knock Out didn’t scare me. As I took photos at different times, it is apparent the blooming power of this Petite Knock Out Rose plant did not disappoint. Looking at the sequence of the above photos, you can see Photo 1 – upon planting, it has many buds ready to open, Photo 2, lots more flowers opened a month later, and Photo 3 was taken at the end of the container gardening season, towards the start of fall. The flowers are still abundant right before our fall season. And the blooms retained their deep fire-engine red color. When you have very full sun situations, as in super full sun, sometimes flower colors will fade, but they did not fade on this Knock Out Petite. Take a look at the foliage as well – shiny, healthy, and no issues. No signs of trouble, thus, I and my customers’ were pleased.

The Knock Out Petite retained its shape overall, did not overgrow the tall blue planter, but the trailing spiller plant next to it got rather large. Sometimes I laugh at myself, when I see how big a plant got over the course of the summer, and I have to always remind myself to restrain my plant enthusiasm and remember that some plants will grow faster and fuller than others. So next time, a more controlled spiller perhaps with this rose plant will be used.

This Petite Knock Out Rose will give a show from the time you plant it till end of the container gardening season in Connecticut, then you may transplant it later if you wish or store the container with the rose shrub in it in your garage or basement over the winter. After my first year of using the new Petite Knock Out rose, I can’t think of any flaws with it – so it is a nice one to add to your full sun locations list. Well, one flaw, make more of these with other bloom colors. Again, it is noted as disease resistant, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get diseases. Overall, I find if you select a healthy plant to start and maintain your container gardens with appropriate watering and care, all should move along well. Container gardening is not like that of a shrub in the ground which may get subjected over the long term to issues, but anyhow, I really was happy to find a smaller rose plant perfect for container gardens and patio pots.

Plants in this tall blue planter are: Petite Knock Out Rose, Delosperma ‘Pumpkin Perfection’ (orange flowers; called Ice Plant), Senecio (succulent plant with blue foliage; called Chopsticks), and Plectranthus (white edges to leaves and a spiller habit). As far as planting requirements, full sun, potting mix for pots (I added a small amount of aged compost), and use at least a 12″-14″ diameter pot for this size plant, but in my case, I used a larger and taller pot. Go with about 16″ deep, but deeper will help those roots grow down, and use larger pots if adding more plant candidates with the rose. And oh, placement: I suggest you put the outdoor planter near a window if you are able to do so, it will allow you to see the roses from the inside too.

For more information about Knock Out Roses, click here.

Cathy Testa
Container Garden Designer
Broad Brook, Connecticut
Zone 6b
Posted: 1/25/2022
See also:
www.WorkshopsCT.com
www.ContainerGardensCT.com
860-977-9473
containercathy at gmail.com