Beds around oak trees need help

Question

Beds around oak trees need help. Will knock out roses bloom underneath the trees? We have some short, but big, oaks that need some flare around them. Would it be okay to plant knock out roses?

Answer 1

It certainly would be nice if they would. However oak trees provided lots of shade and roses need good sunlight to perform well. Plus the tree roots would take the nutrition from the roses which would take away what they need to perform well. If you wish to try it, I would recommend planting a few Homerun line of rosebushes out away from the main trunk of the tree as you can and where they do get some decent sun exposure. Keep them well fed and watered. Place some Jobes tree food spikes into the ground about half way between the rosebushes planting location and the trunk of the trees. Hopefully this will help keep the tree root systems satisfying while the rosebushes are trying to get their root systems established. I recommend the Homerun line of roses as they were bred from the Knockout line to be even hardier and more disease resistant.