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Old 27-06-2006, 12:45 AM posted to rec.gardens.roses
 
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Default pruning knockouts now?

I'm not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination, so I know very
little of the terms and things "everyone should know". We recently
redid our front bed (in Houston, TX), and put 3 knockout roses in there
becase the nursery told us we bascally couldn't kill them.

Man were they right! They're now about 3 1/2 - 4 feet high and going
like gangbusters.

We'd like to trim them back to maybe 2 1/2 to 3 feet and just get them
a little more under control (looking a little spindly right now) and
more in scale with the rest of the bed.

Questions:
- Can we cut them back to that size now?
- Should we?
- If not, when should we, and
- What is the best technique (where to prune, which stalks to prune,
etc.)
- Do we prune all the stalks to the same level, or cut some off
completely and others leave the length we want?

I meant it about not knowing much, so the more your answers resemble
talking to a 3rd grader, the better. 8 )

Thanks!

-- Todd