Smooth rose

Photo: A. Barra — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 3 through 7

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Unusually thornless or near-thornless for a wild rose — an easier plant to work around than most of the genus. Hips are a good vitamin C source, best cooked into jam or syrup rather than eaten raw. ⚠ Deseed the hips before eating: the ring of stiff hairs around the seeds is a gut and skin irritant, and is what old-fashioned itching powder was made from. Strain it out of any purée or syrup.

Hardiness

Zone 3–7

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Aug–Sept

Mature size

Dense, mounded, to about 1.8 m (6 ft)

Light

Full sun to part shade

Soil pH

5.5–7.5 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Northeastern North America and the upper Midwest — Quebec and Ontario south to Kansas, east to Missouri and Ohio.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Blunt-tipped leaflets

Root system

Deep and strongly suckering, throwing new shoots from spreading lateral roots — which is how wild roses build thickets, and worth knowing before siting one in a small bed. The suckers are also the easiest way to get another plant.

Fruit description

Red hips, ripening through late summer

Propagation

Stem cuttings, division of rootstock, or seed (needs cold-moist stratification to break dormancy)

Pollination

Hermaphrodite and bee-pollinated, self-compatible — a single bush will set hips. Cross-pollination between two plants still gives heavier set and better seed fill, so a pair does better than a lone specimen.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.