Plant profile: rosehips
Behind every rose is a hip bursting to get out. Sissinghurst’s head gardener Troy Scott Smith selects 13 roses that show their winter fruits to best effect
Yellow, orange, scarlet, burnished plum and black: the ‘false fruits’ of the rose are its best-kept secret, offering vibrant colour to the winter garden
Roses are perhaps Sissinghurst’s most iconic flower. For Vita Sackville-West, who made the garden with her husband Harold Nicolson, roses were the embodiment of the romantic, particularly the old forms and the species roses with their wild exuberance and brilliantly coloured hips.
Most people grows roses for their flowers, but few spare a thought for the shiny, plump hips. All roses produce hips, but we don’t see them as often as we do the flowers because as gardeners we tend to deadhead the spent blooms.
The name ‘ hip’ is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word hiope. Botanically speaking, the hip is considered a false fruit, the true fruits of the rose being the small, dry, hard seeds (called achenes) found within the hip.
The best hips are produced by species roses, shrub roses and ramblers. Planted either as standalone specimens or as hedges in wilder areas of the garden, you can let these roses grow naturally without much pruning. Round or oval rosehips form on the pollinated roses in late summer and autumn. Depending on the species, they can grow in clusters (as in Rosa glauca), in small groups of three to four hips (as with the indispensable Rosa rugosa) or as a large, single display (as in Rosa ‘Cupid’ or Rosa ‘Meg’).
When rosehips first appear, they are hard and green. As the days shorten and the nights become cooler, they undergo a noticeable colour change, mainly turning to deep shades of red and orange. Some hips persist into winter, as in Rosa virginiana and Rosa rubiginosa, providing a nutritious food source for wildlife. Squirrels and birds eat the ripened hips, but cannot digest the achenes, which are dispersed in their droppings. In favourable conditions, at least a few new rose seedlings will emerge the following spring.
Hips vary hugely in size, shape and colour. Some of the smallest belong to the wild rose Rosa elegantula ‘Persetosa’, with tiny scarlet beads less than a centimetre long, while Rosa rugosa can have hips the size and colour of cherry tomatoes. Hips can be rounded, oval, elongated, pear-shaped or flagonshaped, and every variation in between. Some are perfectly smooth, as with Rosa ‘Penelope’, while others, such as Rosa villosa, are covered with resinous hairs called trichomes. Most rosehips are red or orange, but they can range in colour from yellow through to mahogany brown and black.
Because most roses with showy hips are vigorous species roses or their near hybrids, they are among the toughest plants in the garden and will grow in almost any soil and any position. Most hipped roses are winter-hardy. Many, such as the rugosas, are also highly resistant to pests and disease.
One of my favourite roses for hips is the rambler ‘Wickwar’. The strongly scented flowers take the form of single, white-tinted blooms, set off beautifully by chalky blue-grey foliage. Then bang! From early September the plant is laden with myriad pea-sized, orange hips that last well into winter. It looks superb grown as a specimen or used to cover a shed or garage. There are many other ramblers that set good hips, some of the best being Rosa filipes ‘Kiftsgate’, Rosa ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ and Rosa ‘Bobbie James’.
Of all the roses that I grow for hips, one of the most glittering is the shrub Rosa moyesii, introduced by EH Wilson from China in 1903. Its tall slender form is best encouraged to grow upright, eventually making a wide ferny canopy overhead, through which the single f lowers of true dusky Persian red are visible. In turn, the flowers are succeeded by small hanging clusters of fiery orange-red fruits in all their finery. The glossy, elongated, vase-shaped hips, up to 5cm long, are crowned by a persistent calyx, which adds an exquisite outline of form.
You have been warned: as in my case, and perhaps that of Vita SackvilleWest, adding a touch of romance to your garden can become additive. But then again, why not? It certainly hasn’t done Sissinghurst any harm. n • Author Troy Scott Smith is head gardener at Sissinghurst Castle Gardens in Kent. His recommendations for the best rosehips can be found over the next five pages.