We have been having torrential rains here and they have absolutely wrecked my two biggest Knock Out Roses and a smaller one. It was only a week ago or so that I had magnificent blooms on all sides of them and the color was terrific as was the amount of blooms. Now, the rain has knocked off the petals. They are so ugly with scarcely any remaining color. The ground is covered with petals and it looks like they will need a drastic pruning from head to toe. I have rose petal mulch!!! I have tied up some of the branches, but they're still droopy. I probably will have to cut those branches off. That's Mother Nature for you!!!!
greenthumb_NC
Karin
Droopy looking Knock Out roses
We've definitely had some torrential rains lately! My knockout was blooming beautifully with that one hot spell that we got a couple of weeks ago. I think that the petal mulch you have is just that the storms knocked a lot of the blossoms that were almost spent off a little earlier than they would have fallen naturally. You shouldn't have to prune a knockout unless you want to force a bloom for a specific time period (wedding, garden party, etc) or need to keep the size down. Give it two weeks to bud up again. It'll come through!
Karin I have lost the petals off of the most gorgeous peonies. Broke my heart. All laying on ground. It seems to happen every year - or maybe those painful memories grow with the years. I agree with Lana - you shouldn't have to prune unless branches broke. It sure rained hard enough to sustain breakage.