Leaving a Garden Behind

As many of you know, this is moving week for Fred and me.

Although we are just going across town, I'm leaving behind 13 years of memories with my daughter Katie and bevy of animals including, Dixie, Chance, Lucy, Ashley, Coo . . . and lots more plants. This morning I looked out over my backyard gardens from my second floor window and sighed. I was leaving my garden behind.

I leave behind lots of Knock Out Roses in many varieties who faithfully gave me flowers in many colors from spring to Thanksgiving -- in the woods.


I leave behind many new varieties we helped introduce, including Knock Out Roses, Endless Summer, Halo hydrangeas, Raymond Evison clematis, American Beauties native plants, Jersey Early Bird Cardinal daily lilies, and Merserve hollies, Drops of Gold. I surprise myself that I love them all and hate to leave them behind. But they are happy and will survive.

I had fully intended to move some plants. I even marked some and listed them in the contract. I'd planned to dig them up and take them with us to our new home.

Never happened.

So now we move on to a new house and a new dig. We have two acres with lots of sun and open space. And I have a greenhouse attached to the family room to fill with Costa house plants. I have a veggie garden, several perennial beds and lots of gorgeous Campania pots to fill. It will be an new journey I'm eager to begin . . . tomorrow.

But for now, I say goodbye to 51 Fawn Lane. Thanks for the

Suzi, GMG

Knock Out Roses at the White House

Our good friend Susan Harris posted on GardenRant today a story about her visit to the White House gardens this past weekend . Here's a great shot of the South Lawn fountain surrounded by Knock Out Roses.

Susan says the fountain once was surrounded by bedding annuals but now shows-off low-maintenance and crowd-pleasing Knock Out Roses.

So just imagine how gorgeous Knock Outs can make your own "white house" look.

For more Knock Out Rose ideas, visit the gallery of Knock Out photos.

Suzi

GMG

Tough Love, Garden Style -- from The Wall Street Journal

Well, I'm back from my fabulous trip to France and returned to find 100 degree days baked the gardens in our parts.

But I must agree with Bart Ziegler of the Wall Street Journal who shares his favorite workhorses in his garden that survived the heat and lack of rain. He includes three of my favorites I have in my garden: Knock-Out roses, of course, Black Lace Sambucus and smoke bushes.

Bart says this about Knock Out Roses:

"Most roses are a mess in my part of the country, attracting bugs and diseases and eventually succumbing to a harsh winter. But there are newer varieties that perform much better.

Knock-Out roses are among the few types of roses that have done well in my yard.

One of them is the Knock-Out series (zones 5-9). They seem to avoid most common rose ailments such as black spot and mildew. Japanese beetles, which recently made their dreaded annual appearance at my house, do attack their buds, but unlike with most other roses they won't eat the leaves.

Read the whole story in The Wall Street Journal.

Suzi

Garden Media Group

All You Need to Know About Roses

With Mother's Day fast approaching, our friend William Moss offered tips about buying, growing, and keeping roses fresh as long as possible on "The Early Show" this morning. Now everyone can enjoy the benefits of beautiful roses!

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Still need that something special for your mother, grandmother or any other special lady in your life? With Mother's Day being less than two weeks away, we decided to put together a short list of fabulous garden gifts that would delight any mom.

Make her day bloom.

Orchids are the most glamorous flowering plants in the world and are a great gift for today's budget conscious shoppers. They're easy to grow and the flowers keep blooming for months with little to no effort! Look for Phalaenopsis Mini-Orchids, which come in a variety of exotic colors in decorative 4 inch and 6 inch containers, for under $15 at your local retailer. For more tips on caring for your orchid, visit Costa Farms.

Give Roses That Live Forever.

Why not give Mom something like that will continue to remind her how much you appreciate her long after her special day is over? Shrub roses are a great alternative to cut roses, which only live for a short time. Impress mom with one of the new Drift® Roses. These ever-blooming groundcover plants grow come in array of colors, form a nice compact habit and are highly disease resistant. Plus, they bloom from early spring to late fall giving your mom months of natural beauty.

Pot up a pretty plant that keeps on giving!

For a great gift that will "wow" moms and anyone who loves a pretty plant, look for the Jersey Earlybird™ 'Cardinal' Daylily from Centerton Nursery. The 4 inch bright red flower with ruffled edges held high on 21 inch stems has thick green foliage. Best of all, it blooms early in May and keeps re-blooming for nearly 100 days through zone 6, and 85 days in Zone 5. Look for Jersey Earlybird™ 'Cardinal' at garden centers.

Moms Dig Tools.

Good tools are like good jewelry for gardeners. Centurion tools with the titanium tips and bright yellow handles and the lady's line, Elizabeth's Garden, make great gifts. From by-pass pruners to loppers, the right tool makes the job much easier. Designs based on the latest ergonomic research, making using these tools a pleasure.

Happy Shopping!

-Stacey

Happy 10th Birthday Knock Out!

Happy Birthday Knock Out® Rose. You’re 10 years old! It’s time to celebrate!

I can't believe it was 10 (well actually 11 years if you count the introduction to the trade) that we first met. You were definitely gorgeous and definitely special.

Funny to think that you almost didn't make it. Like all great stars, you were not an overnight success. If rose hobbyist and your breeder Bill Radler hadn't had the patience of Job and a nosey neighbor, who knows where you'd be. But after 15 years of trial and error and years of testing in locations throughout the nation, you arrived on the rose scene, took the gardening world by storm, and started a revolution.

Rosarians hailed you as a “breakthrough shrub rose” when you were awarded the prestigious All-America Rose Selections in 2000 and the rest is history.

We sent baby Knock Outs to garden writers around the country who tested you in their gardens and fell in love. You were called the "no fear" rose that anyone could grow with success. And you bloomed abundantly and forever!

And then the word got out about what a great garden shrub you are and WOW! demand far exceeded supply as people flocked to garden centers to bring you home to their gardens. You have been stunning us with outstanding looks and carefree performance ever since.

Steve Hutton, president of The Conard-Pyle Co., says Knock Out success story of is second only to that of the Peace rose. “From the very first moment, we knew we had something special. “

Now, 10 years later, you are not only the most popular rose every sold, you are one for the most popular shrubs with millions of Knock Out Roses sold all across America. As a matter of fact, you are one of the few roses that thrive in just about every region of the country.

You now come in a fancy green pot with your name on it and a big tag that tells all about you and how to grow you. People won't be able to miss you at the garden centers and home stores across the country.

So Happy Birthday, Knock Out.

Suzi

For 10 years of Knock Out stories, visit Garden Media Group

Sunny Knock in Los Angeles Times

In today's LA Times, Kathy Van Mullekom writes about Sunny Knock Out:

New Sunny Knock Out rose coming to town

I will never garden again without having Knock Out roses in my yard.

It's been a rough year in local gardens, including mine, but the Knock Outs have performed superbly.

They've weathered the drought, need no sprays to keep them disease free and produced hundreds of blooms without removing any old flowers.

What more can you ask for? Hopefully, more Knock Out roses, including a yellow-flowering one called Sunny next year.

Sunny Knock Out opens to a medium yellow, and over time it becomes more pastel and eventually gets a pink tinge to some petals.

Steve Hutton, president at Conard-Pyle, Sunny's developer says this is not the Yellow Knock Out that many anticipate -- that's still in the works.

"As you know, yellow is the most difficult color to get disease resistance in a rose," Hutton says in a recent NMPro, the Weekly Nursery Management and Production e-newsletter. "This one has the disease resistance and garden performance we want, but not the true yellow color. That's coming, though."

If you have Knock Out roses in your garden, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I never remove old flowers and use only shears to prune them back in late February. No special pruning technique is needed, just cut them back about 12 inches above ground and watch them perform magnificently again. Since mine are relatively new, I may not prune them this coming year.

You'll find Knock Out roses at all location garden centers, including Lowe's and Home Depot. Many are on sale and fall is a fine time to plant them.

Copyright © 2010, Newport News, Va., Daily Press

For more gardening stories, visit Garden Media Group

A New Look for Knock Out® Roses

As gorgeous and popular as it is, who would have thought you could improve on Knock Out, but darned if Conard-Pyle didn't.

Take a look at the new chartreuse pot, logo and tag for the Knock Out® Family of Roses- all 7 of them: Original, Double, Pink, Double Pink, Blushing, Rainbow and Sunny. All great garden shrubs!

Knock Out Roses on NBC with P. Allen Smith

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

"Let's party!" says Robin Williams

Even Robin Williams knows the effect spring has on us when he says,"Spring is Nature's way of saying 'Let's party!'" That was the hidden message in our Garden Media Group's 1st Day of Spring contest. Our 20 winners will be receiving their gifts baskets from Liquid Fence, Costa Farms, Knock Out Roses, and WaterStik, next week.
Watch for more contests in the coming weeks.

Carefree Spirit™ 2009 AARS Winner

Finally a true red, hard shrub rose! An offspring of the popular winner Carefree Delight®, Meilland hybridized an even better landscape plant that keeps the great foliage of its parent and adds more disease resistance, as well as having and even better plant habit with a great non-fading bright red color. A consensus winner that will perform in any area of the country. Hardy to Zone 5.

A yellow Knockout, just in time for spring planting

Jessica Damiano's award-winning garden blog gets to the root of things. She wrote this week about Sunny Knock Out . . .
If you like yellow roses, you might have to sit down for this one. Knockout roses, a gift to gardeners a few years back, has unveiled a yellow version of its shrubby, disease-resistant, zero-maintenance bush.
Three years ago, I bought two red single Knockouts (they're hot pink, really, but the tag says Rosa Radrazz). They grew so fast and bloomed nonstop from June through December, requiring no deadheading, no powdery mildew treatment, no pruning, nothing. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Read the rest of the post about Sunny Knock Out