Rose hips

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 12

Rose hips

Maturing fruits are an autumn highlight in the garden. Although it is generally considered a sign of neglect to allow modern hybrid roses to produce fruit, they are .an added attraction of many of the older species and their forms. Many of these shrub, scrambling, and rambling type roses are renowned for their production of hips (heps as many growers and publications prefer to call them) which can often be used for making syrup and conserves high in vitamin C; some are even tasty freshly picked from the plant The hips produced by the many different species vary from insignificant and small to large and lustrous; they differ also in their conformity, colour and persistence. Those of R. rugosa are generally large and to-mato-like; urn-shaped hips are a characteristic of R. moyesii and many of its hybrids; rounded, shining black or maroon-black fruits are a feature of R. spinosissima. The hips of R. Virginiana are small, orange-shaped, bright glistening red, while those of R. omeiensis are bright crimson and yellow, pearshaped.