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masterofcoffee

growing rose hips

17 years ago

Hello!

I pollinated all of my hybrid tea roses sometime about 2-2.5 months ago. My Sheer bliss rose has been growing very large hips, however, my peace and veterans honor roses don't produce hips very well at all. I have made sure that they are pollinated, but they don't ever seem to set hips. What can I do to improve the setting of the hips?

Thanks!

Comments (5)

  • 17 years ago

    (Well, at the risk of seeming sarcastic, if hips themselves are the goal the best way to do that is to grow rose species known for setting hips. Hybrid tea roses (& floribundas & grandifloras) are such complex inter-specific hybrids that sometimes a given cultivar is sterile, or very nearly so, or only sets hips, or only has fertile pollen.)

  • 17 years ago

    I've gotten plenty of hips from VH, and 'Peace' is a parent of many, many roses, so they are both far from sterile.
    I often don't get hips from young roses, only to get plenty after a few years when the roses are more established. How old are your roses?

  • 17 years ago

    I just planted my roses this year. They have had very large flowers so far,about 5 inches across. The Japanese beetles enjoy the peace rose blossoms. I love the color and scent of VH, so I had tried to hybridize it with my sheer bliss, a pink hybrid tea that has great fragrance. My sheer bliss has 3 large hips on them, so I will try to grow those, and hope that I have a natural hybrid. Any tips on increasing the speed that the hips will ripen? I feel that they will be too immature by frost. thanks for all of the help !

  • 17 years ago

    tea roses and hips?? Never heard of that, with the exception of a few landscaping roses that are probably HT but do not look like HT at all.

    If you want hips, the best you can do IMO is you plant a rugosa like alba, rubra, and scabrosa. These sets hips like crazy, and huge hips! (nerly 1 inch diameter). They start becoming red right now, masses of hips. Thay are also edible, although you have to prepare them (too many seeds for eating them from the plant).

  • 17 years ago

    Here is something you can do when you are starting to get cold weather, especially at night and you cannot keep the hip on the bush any longer, usually below 35 degrees is not good. Only when you start to see color on your hip, a little orange or yellow, you could pick the hip with a good part of the stem attached, put it in a vase with water for about 2 weeks in the house, then take the hip with the stem still attached and put it in a plastic bag with a paper towel and put it in the frig for another 2 weeks then take the hip out and open it to clean the seeds.
    This will give you an extra month.
    Be sure and change the water and keep it clean in the vase everyday.
    I read that you could keep the hips on the bush until the temps get down to about 25 degrees, but I won't take that chance.
    Good Luck