You brought your rose home from the nursery, carefully planted it into your garden or landscape, and you’ve seen the the first wave of beautiful blooms.
But then it seems like an instant and suddenly all that color is gone.
When will your roses be back?
Well, friend, it depends.
If you’ve purchased a modern variety, your rose will likely bloom in flushes. After the first flush of flowers for the year have faded, you can expect to see another flush of rose blooms about 6 to 8 weeks later.
This rule of thumb is true for most of the roses in commercial production today.
But let’s dive into the history of the rose to understand why this 6 to 8 week rule may not be the case for your particular rose.
A Quick Rose Breeding History
Roses were cultivated by humans in two main regions in the early days: Europe and Asia (mainly China).
Most of the European roses were naturally once-blooming. This meant that they only bloomed once during the year and then were done for the season. Usually the spent blooms were left so that the edible hips would develop.
Many Europeans found the rose as a plant useful in the kitchen and medicinally, which is why is likely a big reason it was hybridized and cultivated in gardens.
Some of these medicinal claims from ancient books called “herbals” may not be true. But nonetheless, people used the leaves, flowers, and hips in all sorts of recipes.
Europeans also prized the rose for its delicious fragrance.
In ancient east Asian cultures, the rose held a prominent place in the garden, too.
In both places, roses grew wild as well. Roses are native only to the northern hemisphere (although they do grow now in places like South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand thanks to humans).
The difference between the Asian roses and the European roses was that many species from east Asia are considered “repeat” or “continuous” blooming roses.
You can imagine the European botanist’s surprise when discovering this trait. A rose that will continue to bloom multiple times throughout the season? Priceless.
This repeat-blooming quality led to the crossbreeding of the “China” roses with the European roses (Albas, Centifolias, Mosses, Damasks, etc.).
What happened after this new hybridization was interesting. Large flowers, showier colors, high scents, and with repetitive bloom cycles! It was off to the races after that.
What does “repeat-blooming rose” mean?
A repeat-blooming rose is one that will do just as the name suggests: a flush of flowers will repeat throughout the season.
As mentioned before, usually this repeat occurs every 6 to 8 weeks.
Another term for “repeat-blooming” is remontant. “Remontant” comes from French and means “to rise again”.
What is a “continuous-blooming” rose?
Some roses are a little bit more floriferous or free-flowering. These are what we call “continuous-blooming” roses.
Nowadays this is more of a marketing term than it is actual fact.
If you pay attention to your “continuous-blooming” rose, you’ll notice that there will be a lag between big flushes of blooms. Many roses are not “continuous” like the retailers suggest.
Most roses that are repeat-blooming have a big flush in the Spring and a big flush in the Fall, but it’s natural for them to lag during the Summer flush. High temperatures coupled with low rainfall and high pest pressure will do that to a plant, rose or not.
Perplexed why your rose isn’t blooming at all? Check out our related post: When will my rose bush bloom?
What are Knock Out® roses?
The original Knock Out® rose was bred by William Radler. Knock Out® was released to the public in 2000 by Star Roses.
Since the cherry red Knock Out®’s release, a whole line of roses under the Knock Out® brand have been released. The roses come in all sorts of colors from red to pink to yellow. They are typically hardy to USDA Zones 5 to 9.
The Knockout® brand’s claim to fame is low maintenance and lots of flowers. They are very floriferous repeat-bloomers with high disease resistance. They’ve also been bred so that deadheading is not a chore that needs to be thought about.
Knock Out®s have definitely changed the rose world, and they are still a staple in gardens, but let us not forget there are many, many roses out there with qualities just as great.
One thing that the Knock Out®s are not particularly known for is fragrance. They do not have high scent. But as far as repeat-blooming, they’re hard to beat. And that’s why they’re in a lot of gardens and sold almost everywhere.
Key Things to Remember About Roses Blooming
When growing roses: Patience is key, and deadheading is important to encourage rebloom.
If your roses have just finished blooming, expect to wait approximately 6 to 8 weeks for another flush of blooms.
You may have some canes put up some more blooms here and there along the way if you’re lucky.
While Knock Out®s are fantastic repeat-bloomers, there’s a whole wide world out there when it comes to particularly floriferous rose varieties. Check out some of the old garden roses with China rose heritage.
The most important thing you can do while you wait is to deadhead your roses right after each bloom flush in order to promote new blooms. The only time you shouldn’t deadhead is if its after the Fall flush of blooms or if you want the rose to set hips.
Enjoy your roses while they last! Smell them, admire them, photograph them, and cut them for your table. They’re worth a little extra attention.
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