I grow roses in my garden, but I don’t have what I think of as a “rose garden.” You know, the formal paths lined with boxwoods surrounding lovingly cared for roses, pruned and pampered to put on their best show. My garden is a “live and let live” kind of space, closer to what many would call a “rustic” or “cottage garden.”
Still, roses find their way into my landscape. I especially like shrub roses, the easy-care types that bloom in spring and keep up the show throughout summer. When I say “shrub roses,” most folks don’t necessarily know what I mean. But if I say “Knockout roses,” they immediately understand what I’m talking about. Alongside “Endless Summer” hydrangeas, “Knockout roses” is one of the most enduring horticultural brands, so much to the point that the product name is shorthand for an entire category of plants.
And you know what? They live up to the hype. In my experience, Knockout roses are easy care blooming machines.
Knockout Roses is celebrating 25 years of beautiful blooms in 2025. It is the most widely sold rose in America and has been for years. These easy care shrub roses are ubiquitous in both public spaces and home landscapes. Is it too much of a good thing, you might ask. I don’t think so. I love Knockout roses and enjoy sprinkling them throughout my landscape.
I’ve had great success growing Knockouts in containers on my deck in full sun. Also in my mailbox garden that gets the full force of the unrelenting summer heat and is far from the garden hose. Knockouts are tough roses that can handle both the insane humidity of Georgia summers and occasional droughty conditions and still pump out beautiful blooms and healthy foliage.
The good folks at Star Roses and Garden Media Group sent me a Knockout rose to try out in my landscape, in celebration of the brand’s birthday. I planted this beauty in my new full sun garden bed between a young Japanese maple and a small serviceberry, backed by arborvitae and pots of rosemary and lavender. Its rosy red blooms can be spotted from many angles and the sweet scent carries on the summer breezes.
Welcome to my garden!
Just a note to add that this is not a sponsored post.
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