Roses

[foxd]

Normally I don't pay much attention to the rosebushes under the air conditioner. The first one was planted to deter air conditoner thieves. (They apparently bought the air conditioner at an ex-neighbor's yard sale. The ex-neighbor sold a number of things of mine without my permission and left town. Anyway there would be attempts to remove the air conditioner every few months for several years after.) After winding up somewhat lopsided after some contracter work and looking like it was going to die, we planted two replacements and I built a bamboo trellis for them to grow on. (Further theft proofing the air conditioner, which has been replaced.) Anyway, we have three rose bushes that produce a nice showing of roses every year, but this year one has decided to produce fruit.

So anybody have any experience with Rose Hips? Since it has produced fruit I would think there might be seeds in the fruit. (Thinking back on it, I have in the past found several tiny plants that I had assumed were multiflora rose because the big rose bushes were hybrids and shouldn't produce fruit and seeds. Maybe they weren't.) So what is the best way to gather Rose seed?

[GrowingHabit]

Your ex-neighbor fiasco sounds a bit like a craigslist revenge type situation that happened in my area. Someone put an add on craigs that a particular address was moving and everything was free. People showed up in droves and started carting things off and got nasty when blocked from doing so.

From what I remember of my wine making days, you gather the rose hips after at least one frost, which makes them sweeter. They make a decent wine, or jam, and dried, they can be powdered and sprinkled over pancakes or jello or whatever is sweet or fruity. The seeds inside are so miserably hairy that I found most of the recipes to be useless in the end. I didn't fancy peeling off the skins in quantities large enough to use for very many experiments.

Dover Publications has a small inexpensive book of old fashioned rose recipes. Sometimes they have the book in stock, and sometimes not. Its also from original sources and not updated for modern hand-holding concise instructions. Rose petal jam is delicious. Rose hip not as much. High vitamin C in dried powdered skins, though.

[Iowaboo]

yeah, I notice rose hips don't have much flesh to make much worthwhile. I do grow the rugosa rose and they suppose to be bigger hips than some. I ate the flesh this fall and I remember it tasted like some kind of fruit, but now have forgotten.

[foxd]

I harvested the rosehips just so I could have the seed to try germinating. However, for the time being I'm keeping them in the refrigerator.

[Alan_L]

Now you got me interested. I'm going to harvest a few hips tomorrow.