I have some knock out roses 4 ft tall and wide. I also have hostas and spirea shrubs and various other plants. I am wondering how to go about protecting them when we have new siding/paint put on the house. I can't dig them out because I have no where to go w them, they are too large and will have to be out of their spot for a couple of weeks. So I was thinking of cutting everything off flush w the ground and laying a sheet of 3/4 plywood over them. ? Will this kill the roses? knock outs grow fast and are easy to find, I may just pull them out and replant altogether, but I can't do that w the other plants of course -I have to much money in them. Any ideas?

We had our roof replaced this past spring and the workers propped sheets of plywood at about a 45 degree angle to deflect the droppings away from my plants. Most but not all had broken dormancy, but weren't all that tall yet. That seemed to work well. I think your idea of cutting back hard and doing the same is reasonable and will hopefully protect things as best you can. The other thing to do is remove any yard art you might have (obvious, but I didn't think of it and was the glad the workers did...)

That is a great Idea, when we get read to do the roof part! I would have not thought of that.

I had our house painted a couple years ago and I cut back the roses pretty hard but not to the ground. The painter did get quite a bit of paint on the roses (despite using plastic) but fortunately it was green. I still see some of the paint on the roses now 3-4 years later and it didn't seem to affect them in the least.