Rose
Rosa
also called knock out rose, shrub rose
The cottage queen — underplant with garlic and chives to fend off blackspot and aphids.
- Type
- Flower · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Pink
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Rich, deep, moisture-retentive
- Feeding
- Feed in spring, then again once the first flush is over.
- USDA zones
- 4a–9b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- May
- Pruning
- Prune in late winter according to the type of rose, and deadhead through the summer.
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 60 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- at the first fall frost
- Mar–May Bud Break
- May–Oct Flowering
- Oct–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 2 ft 6 in
- In-row spacing
- 2 ft 6 in
- Between rows
- 3 ft 3 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody and fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 4.5–6 ft across, about 1.5–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A shallow woody framework with the fine feeding roots in the leaf litter above it. Those feeders are mostly under the outer half of the canopy rather than against the stem, which is where water and feed should go.
Roses root deeper than most shrubs, which is why an established one stands a drought. Almost all garden roses are grafted, so any shoot coming from below the swollen union at the base is the rootstock: pull it off at its point of origin rather than cutting it, or it comes back doubled.
The habit is Rose’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Cats and dogs
- Confirmed safe
We say a plant is safe only where a named poison-control reference names that exact species and records it as non-toxic to both cats and dogs. Most plants are on nobody’s list, and their absence here is not a judgement about them. This is a record of what those references say, not veterinary advice, and it cannot account for your own animal, the quantity eaten, or a plant treated with anything.
The ASPCA row names the genus only, and so does our own catalog entry, so the two are the same statement. That covers the Knock Out and shrub roses filed under this slug.
- When
- Cut in early morning or evening, never midday heat; repeat-flowering roses give flushes from early summer to autumn. Petals for culinary/rosewater use come from just-opened, unsprayed blooms; hips are harvested after the first light frost sweetens them.
- What to look for
- Vase stage: sepals down and the bud one-third to half open ('marshmallow' soft when gently squeezed) — tight buds may never open, blown roses shatter. Hips: fully colored red-orange and slightly soft.
- How to harvest
- Sharp bypass pruners; cut back to just above an outward-facing five-leaflet leaf — that's both your stem length and correct pruning. Strip lower leaves and thorns below the waterline, recut the stem underwater or immediately plunge into deep lukewarm water to condition for a few hours.
- How often
- Cutting blooms IS deadheading — do it after every flush and repeat-bloomers reflush in 4–6 weeks. Stop cutting/deadheading in early autumn if you want hips.
- Storing the crop
- Vase life 5–10 days depending on variety; recut and refresh water every 2 days, refrigerate arrangements overnight if possible. Petals dry for potpourri or infuse fresh; hips (seeds and irritant hairs scooped out) dry for tea, rich in vitamin C — store dried airtight for a year.
- Aphids Small sap-sucking insects — greenfly, blackfly — that cluster on soft new growth and excrete sticky honeydew. Squash by hand, hose off with water, and encourage ladybirds and lacewings.
- Sawfly Caterpillar-like larvae (gooseberry, rose, berberis kinds) that can strip a bush in days. Inspect leaf undersides from late spring and pick larvae off by hand.
- Black spot Rounded black or purple blotches with feathery edges on rose leaves, the leaf yellowing around them and dropping early.
- Powdery mildew A white dusty coating over leaves and shoots when roots are dry but the air is humid. Keep plants watered and mulched, prune for airflow, and remove the worst leaves.
- Rust Rose rust
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & Trichogramma
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
- Aphid midge Aphidoletes aphidimyzaHunts Aphids
A tiny midge whose orange maggots paralyze aphids and drink them dry, twenty or more each. Sold as a greenhouse biological control and resident outdoors wherever there are small nectar flowers and an unsprayed aphid colony to find.
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Aphids
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Aphids
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Damsel bug NabidaeHunts Aphids
A slender, mantis-armed bug that grabs aphids, small caterpillars, and thrips in low crops and meadowy edges. Leave a strip of unmown grasses and flowers for it to overwinter in.
- Dragonflies & damselflies OdonataHunts Aphids
Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Aphids
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Aphids
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Aphids
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Aphids
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Aphids
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Aphids
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Soldier beetle CantharidaeHunts Aphids
Soft-winged beetles seen mating on flower heads in high summer; adults and larvae both take aphids and soft grubs. Open composite flowers are their landing pads and hunting grounds.
- Spiders AraneaeHunts Aphids
Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.
- Spined soldier bug Podisus maculiventrisHunts Sawfly
A predatory stink bug — same shield outline as the pest, but with a sharp spine at each shoulder and a beak it uses to spear caterpillars and beetle grubs. Learn the spines before you squash a shield bug, because this one is on your side.
- Tachinid fly TachinidaeHunts Sawfly
Bristly, house-fly-lookalike parasitoids that lay eggs on caterpillars, beetle grubs, and earwigs — the maggot consumes the host from within. Adults sip nectar from shallow umbels and daisies.
Lavender, Geraniums, Alliums, Catmint
Roses are ancient — fossils date the family back some 35 million years.
Green-leaved flowers, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com