Roses' second season

10/11/2004
Roses' second season

In French gardens this October, roses are just coming into their second season of glory. Yet, the roses I'm admiring haven't a single flower petal anywhere. Rather, they are covered with brilliant scarlet, ruby red, orange, or even yellow hips, shining like a profusion of bright jewels in the low autumn sun and smoldering with fiery color on even the grayest days.

















As you may have remarked, not all rose plants bear hips. These round to oval or even urn-shaped berries are in fact the fruit of fertile rose flowers. And not all rose flowers are fertile anymore, thanks to mankind's tampering with their breeding for hundreds of years. In fact, the hugely double roses that most of us think of when we visualize this favorite flower have traded in their sexual organs for extra petals. So...no hips.



If you want to have showy rosehips ornamenting your garden during fall and winter, you need to choose roses with single or semi-double flowers that still retain their stamens and pistils (photo below right). While you'll be foregoing those huge, heavy, blowsy blooms, you'll soon find that single and semi-double roses have a grace and purity all their own. In fact, after a lifetime spent around roses, the singles and semi-doubles are the flower forms I now prefer. I find they have a natural poise and elegance, and I love to see bees nuzzling drunkenly in that golden boss of stamens in the center of the flower.



Another tradeoff is that the heaviest hip-bearers are the once-flowering roses that are loaded with blooms for several weeks in early summer. Then they form masses of hips...but no more flowers. While this may sound like a disadvantage, all that is required is a slight attitude adjustment.






Once-blooming roses are almost always naturally healthy roses. Because they're not continually pushing out tender new growth, their foliage hardens off and becomes disease-resistant. What that means for you is--no spraying! In addition, for the same reason, these roses are almost always more winter-hardy . Finally, I'll take masses of bright hips to light up my fall and winter over a smattering of late summer blossoms any day.



Rosehips have very low water content, which means they persist well into late winter. Birds usually prefer to take them at this time, after they have been softened by repeated freezing and thawing. I remember my mother being thrilled one year to see an entire flock of grosbeaks--rare birds in her area--descend onto her hip-covered shrub roses one bleak, late February day. So by growing fruiting roses, you'll be able to enjoy their beauty until winter is almost over, and have the satisfaction of providing winter bird fodder.



Rosehips are extremely rich in vitamin C, and make a delicious and fortifying tea, either alone or combined with herbs such as verbena, mint, and chamomile. The fleshier types--such as the hips of rugosa roses (photo right) and sweetbriar (R. eglanteria, photo above left) also make excellent jam.







Finally, rosehips for me are an absolute must in fall bouquets. They are naturals to pair with clouds of blue asters or brazen sunflowers. During autumn, their warm colors conjure the very essence of the bountiful harvest season. As the holidays approach, their reds are the perfect accompaniment to wreaths and other arrangements of evergreen foliage. Or let them stand on their own. One of the most beautiful arrangements I ever saw consisted of nothing but myriads of different types of rosehips.

















Are you convinced yet? Or am I preaching to the converted... Either way, here's a (very partial) list of some of the best roses to provide a second season of color in your garden.

Rosa glauca
Rosa moyesii
Rosa eglanteria
Rosa canina
Rosa virginiana
Rosa rugosa
Rosa gallica var. officinalis
Rosa helenae
'Charles Albanel'
'Dart's Dash'
'Paulii'
'Delicata'
'Felicia'
'Frau Dagmar Hartopp'
'Jens Munk'
'Rugosa Magnifica'
'Herbstfeuer'
'Roseraie de l'Hay'
'Scabrosa'
'Kiftsgate'
'Evangeline'
'Complicata'

For more in-depth information, see my book Growing Beautiful Roses, published by Rodale Press, ISBN 1-57954-810-5.

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