This Friday I plan to plant two Knock Out® Roses (Double Red,
Rosa hybrida 'Radtko' PP16202) in my SO's yard.
Rose (Rosa 'Double Knock Out')
I'm going to plant them in partial sun, flanking stairs that lead up to a front door. It's a forest setting (a manufactured home park in a cedar (I think) forest. What little soil there is was amended years ago with what looks like a few expanded shale pellets. I plan to dig down a foot or so and amend with bags of composted manure, then mulch with 2 inches of coarse bark chunks or wood chips. Zone 8.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I have in my yard one Knock Out® Red, 'Radrazz' PP11836, that grew HUGE in a raised bed that I amended deeply (very heavy clay to start with, now pretty heavy clay, but the raised bed gives good drainage since it is 16" tall on one side, and 8-12" on the other side).
Rose (Rosa 'Knock Out')
Back then I didn't know that you're supposed to prune these severely every year, so now it's pretty dense, as tall as I am, and maybe 4-5 feet wide. Last winter I started thinning it out by removing some branches near ground level and shortening others. I meant to shorten every tall branch (cane?) later, but never did. I hate pruning!
Anyway, based on the blooms on the 2 gallon potted plants I bought, the 'Radtko' blooms look larger and "roseier" than my 'Radrazz' blooms. More petals ('Radtko' = 26-40 petals. 'Radrazz' = 8-15 petals), and less "open" than 'Radrazz' blooms.
The advertising calls the 'Radrazz' blooms "Red", and calls the 'Radtko' blooms "Cherry Red". That, I don't know about. My bush has yet to bloom this year.
Does anyone have any experience comparing these two cultivars?
