Question
I live in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. We planted 5 double knockout bushes in late May, after seeing how beautiful our neighbor's roses were. Last week we noticed that all the blooms are gone and the bushes are turning brown. They also have little holes in the leaves. I went over to the neighbors to ask if they had any suggestions, and their rose bushes looked just like ours. (We did buy them from the same place.)  But, neighbors down the street have had knockouts for several roses and theirs are the same as ours.
We have had a lot of rain this year, could that cause the problem?

Answer
Something seems to be going on with Knock Out roses as I am getting many inquires just like yours. It appears that these roses will not tolerate much weather abuse and get even by dying back. Normally roses that re-act as you describe do so because their roots are not getting enough water or getting too much water. Fixing the problem is easy. Little holes in the leaves can be caused by insects but it can also be what is called Shot Hole Fungus, which roses get when it rains a lot. So many areas are getting either long dull, damp springs and then high heat or an excessive amount of rain both conditions are not liked by roses and they will re-act to it negatively. Newly planted roses are always under stress when first planted and this causes even more stress. But because you said that the neighbors down the street also have the same problem then it is obviously not what you are doing but the constant rain and the holes are a fungus. Cutting back the roses and spraying the roses with a fungicide will help clean them up. Hopefully afterwards you won't get more rain.