Nootka rose

Photo: Walter Siegmund — CC BY 2.5 · source

Survives zone 4 through 9

Harvest calendar

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

A Pacific coast species reaching from Alaska to California. Big, purplish, pear-shaped hips that persist into winter — good frost-sweetened wildlife food, and improve in flavour for people the same way. ⚠ 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 4–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Sept–Oct

Mature size

0.9–1.8 m (3–6 ft)

Light

Full sun to part shade

Soil pH

5.5–7.0 (mildly acid to neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Western North America — Alaska south to California, east to western Montana and New Mexico, sea level to mid elevation.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

30–60 cm/year — medium to fast.

Spacing

200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate and pinnate with 5–9 oval, doubly toothed leaflets, on stems carrying a distinctive pair of straight thorns at each leaf node.

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

Large, purplish, pear-shaped hips; frost improves the flavour

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 — a single plant sets hips. Bumblebees and solitary bees work the large single pink flowers.

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.