If you've avoided adding roses to your landscape because you think they're too much trouble, Lavalette Nursery has the perfect rose for you. The Knock Out Rose has spectacular blooms all summer and it's so disease resistant that no special care is needed. You don't even have to dead-head this rose -- the petals fall off cleanly.

This small shrub grows to about 3 feet tall and wide with dark green foliage and is available in various shades of red and pink. It blooms continously from spring until frost. Knock Out varieties do fine with as little as four hours of sun, although full sun is better, and moist, well-drained soil is preferred. Knock Out roses also thrive in humid climates where most other roses need spraying and maintenance, and is winter-hardy in zones 4 to 10.

Drop by Lavalette Nursery and see for yourself.

This exciting new rose is the product of 11 years of work by William Radler, now the rosarian for the Chicago Botanic Garden. When he was a teen-ager, he resolved to breed a hardy rose that was beautiful, bloomed all season, was resistant to black spot and maintained an attractive shrublike habit.

The result was Knock Out, the award-winning shrub rose that has been called "perhaps the best-ever landscape rose for four-season interest." The rose was offered to the All America Rose Selections committee and declared a winner in 1997. It became available to the public only last year.

Radler offers a few basic tips for growing Knock Out roses. When planting, make sure the graft union is planted 1 to 2 inches below the soil level. This helps preserve its cold hardiness. Use a slow-release granular fertilizer suitable for roses. Knock Out is drought-tolerant but should be watered well during its first year. The plant should be mulched with several inches of shredded hardwood. Additional winter protection is not required.

When forsythia blooms the following April, prune any dead wood and fertilize again. In future years, if necessary, prune the shrub hard to the ground to maintain its compact form.