11 November 2009
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Rose hip, rosa

Many roses provide a superb display of fat, tomato-red or bright orange hips that add an extra layer of fun to late summer and autumn gardens. Some provide better hips than others, so it's worth doing some research.

Facts about rose hips

Specialist rose books often call hips "heps". The word originally comes from the Middle English "hepe". Dialect names for wild rose hips are more extravagant, and include "hedge-pedgies", "nippernails", "pixie pears" and "pig's noses".

Hips are a rich source of vitamin C, and can be taken as a syrup or eaten. Connoisseurs claim Rugosa hips have the best flavour and are the least fiddly to prepare. Each one must be top and tailed, then cut in half to remove the seeds and irritating hairs. They can then stewed, dried or pounded into a paste for freezing.

Recommended varieties

Roses for hips are grown the same way as other roses, but are often better suited to wild or cottage gardens, where their vigorous growth gets plenty of room to spread.

Ramblers

Let them shoot up into old, stout trees to form a tangle of stems, or around pillars or pergolas, where they can be kept much more shapely. They flower once a year.

R. filipes 'Kiftsgate': a massive, stupendous rambler that has vicious thorns and makes a good keep-out barrier when grown around fences. The small hips follow the white flowers; it grows to about 9m (30ft). This plant has been given the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
R. soulieana: a dog rose with soft grey foliage and white flowers that open from creamy yellow buds. It makes a large shrub 3m to 4m (10ft to 13ft) high; a thick, impenetrable hedge; or you can use it as a climber on a pillar with late-flowering Clematis viticella, or C. orientalis, which produces fluffy seed-heads. Try to position it where the autumn sun can shine on its tiny, bright-orange hips. C. orientalis has been given the AGM.

Wild roses and hybrids

All are good contenders for borders and wild gardens, where they put on a good show of flowers once a year.

R. 'Geranium': making a large bushy shape, over head high, it has bright-red flowers followed by enormous hips.
R. roxburghii: an attractive pink burr rose with round green hips that are as hard and prickly as immature conkers.
R. sweginzowii: bristly orange berries on long, spiny canes. It can be mingled with other shrubs in a wild garden. It's rare, but worth hunting out.

Shrubs

Usually growing to about head height, they often repeat flower. The following also offer a good show of hips:

R. rugosa 'Alba': with 'Rubra' and 'Frau Dagmar Hastrup', it bears fat, impressive, tomato-like fruits. The rugosas make large, dense, attractive and robust shrubs with lush leaves. Some continue flowering until quite late, while also fattening their magnificent hips from earlier blooms. 'Alba' and 'Rubra'have received the AGM.

Edible and sweet

Fruiting varieties are usually edible and pleasantly sweet, especially if you wait until the first or second sharp frost has concentrated their sugars.

R. 'Buff Beauty': a shoulder-high, yellow-flowering shrub rose with a good scent. Also try 'Felicia' and 'Penelope'. All three have been given the AGM.

Growing tips

Pruning

To get good rose hips, don't deadhead or the plants won't be able to produce seeds. Also, prune just once, in late winter or early spring, to a desired shape, or simply remove some of the oldest branches. Leaving well alone will pay the best dividends.

Propagation

To propagate, cut the hips off when they're fully coloured, but before they shrivel. Bury them in trays of moist compost, outdoors in the cold. Frost is essential to germination, which is why a hard winter can result in a forest of seedlings around roses that are left unpruned. In late winter, sort out the hips and squeeze their contents into a bowl of water, where they'll either float or sink. Only the seeds that sink are fertile and worth planting. They should be sown in pots in a cold frame.