Glaucous dog rose

Photo: Ulf Eliasson — CC BY 2.5 · source

Survives zone 4 through 7

Harvest calendar

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

Part of the wider dog-rose (R. canina) group, distinguished by its bluish-glaucous foliage. Hips are soft-fleshed and rich in vitamin C, best cooked into syrup or jam. ⚠ 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 4–7

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Sept–Oct

Mature size

1–2 m, stout arching stems with rigid hooked prickles

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

5.5–7.5 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Europe to the Caucasus and northwestern Africa.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

30–60 cm/year — medium to fast.

Spacing

250 cm (98 in) apart — about 6.3 m² (67 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate and pinnate with 5–7 oval toothed leaflets, blue-green and usually hairless, on stout arching stems with strongly hooked prickles.

Root system

Shallow to moderately deep and strongly suckering in the wild species — they spread by root shoots into thickets, which is exactly what makes them good hedging and awkward in a border.

Fruit description

Oval to round scarlet hips 1.5–2.5 cm long, soft-fleshed and notably high in vitamin C, ripening in autumn and standing well into winter — one of the better wild roses for hip syrup. ⚠ The hips are edible and very high in vitamin C, but the fine hairs packed around the seeds inside are a genuine irritant to mouth and gut and must be strained or sieved out before use.

Propagation

Hardwood cuttings in autumn root well for most wild roses; suckers can be lifted and divided. Seed is doubly dormant — the hips need warm then cold stratification, and often germinate in the second spring.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated and largely self-fertile, like most wild roses, so a single plant will set hips. Bees work the open single flowers freely.

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.