Pruning knockout roses

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Dragonflys4me (Chris), IA(Zone 5a) Mar 31, 2015

I'm wondering if knockout roses should be pruned - if so, how soon in zone 5 and how much should be taken off?

Thanks!

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Terry Murfreesboro, TN(Zone 7a) Mar 31, 2015

I hard prune mine hard every year (I'm in zone 6b/7a) - I try to do it before they leaf out but this year, I'll be pruning them with their first flush of leaves coming out...I wasn't going to risk frost-bite to do it earlier :-)

I prune them back to the main canes, leaving about 18-20 inches of "bush" and they do fine.

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Sequoiadendron4 Lititz, PA(Zone 6b) Apr 01, 2015

You don't 'have' to prune your KO roses, only if you desire to control size. I did prune mine last spring at first flush but that was only because I wanted to prune out the winter kill on many of the branches.

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Dragonflys4me (Chris), IA(Zone 5a) Apr 01, 2015

Thank you :) We're mainly doing it to control size and to shape them better, so guess that will get done today as they don't show any leaves yet.

thanks again

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Terry Murfreesboro, TN(Zone 7a) Apr 01, 2015

That's why I prune mine. They were planted by the first owners around our wrap-around porch, and the one year I didn't prune them, they were pretty gangly, taller than the porch and sticking out over the sidewalk.

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