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Rosehip
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.
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.
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.
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.
All are good contenders for borders and wild gardens, where they put on a good show of flowers once a year.
Usually growing to about head height, they often repeat flower. The following also offer a good show of hips:
Fruiting varieties are usually edible and pleasantly sweet, especially if you wait until the first or second sharp frost has concentrated their sugars.
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.
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.
Most wild roses are problem-free. Otherwise, keep a look out for black spot and spray accordingly. Let birds pick off any aphids.
National Collection of Roses
P Deacon The National Trust for Scotland Malleny Garden, Balerno Edinburgh EH14 7AF Tel: 0131 449 2283 Website: (External) www.nts.org.uk
D Stone The National Trust Mottisfont Abbey, Romsey Hampshire SO51 OLP Tel: 01794 340757
M Baldwin Derbyshire College of Agriculture Broomfield, Derby Derbyshire DE7 6DN Tel: 01332 836610 Website: (External) www.derby-college.ac.uk
HCW Robinson Moor Wood, Woodmancote Cirencester Gloucestershire GL7 7EB Tel: 01285 831397
B Quest-Ritson The Gardens of the Rose Chiswell Green, St Albans Hertfordshire AL2 3NR Tel: 01727 850461 Website: (External) www.rnrs.org
Peter Beales Roses London Road, Attleborough Norfolk NR17 1AY Tel: 01953 454707 Website: (External) www.classicroses.co.uk
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