The prosperity of your knockout roses depends on just a few things: planting and maintenance. The creator of the knockout rose, William Radler, has tried hard to breed out the necessity of maintenance altogether, whether that be preparation for the winter, or protection against disease and bugs. With the maintenance part already focused on a great deal to make our lives easier, we look at what we do have control over, which is the initial planting. It would be fantastic if in the distance future, there may be some type of “self-planting” rose, but until then its up to us to understand a few basic steps in the manual planting process.