Are you thinking all rose hips are poison, or just the ones from your specific rose? I've had jelly and tea made from rose hips, and I've been told that many can be eaten fresh, so I hope others chime in on the issue.

Not sure that all rose seeds are poisonous if any. We ate so many of them when we didn't properly clean the inner side of the hips. I remember we didn't want seeds to be anywhere because I recall them being kind of fuzzy... Back in my childhood mom dried them, made jelly, some kind of juice out of them... Those were wild roses, I'm guessing some kind of Rugosas... Tea made with dried hips is really packed with good stuff along with Vitamin C. To properly dry them and use you don't have to do much, just put them on a string and hang to dry. To make tea is just add handful of dried hips to a cup of boiled water. Cover the cup. Let it sit for a while and then enjoy, maybe dissolving with more water to your taste.

That is a gorgeous wreath, Mari, and so naturally graceful. It should inspire me to quit deadheading sooner, so I'll have more rose hips to craft with. Which rose did you obtain the hips from?

From what I know, all parts of roses are edible, and rose hips are a great source of Vitamin C, as Natasha stated. I had a friend whose father ate rose hips all his life as a source of vitamins. He lived to be 95. I believe they sell rose hips in many health food stores. It seems like every rodent, insect, and varmint wants to eat roses, a sure sign that they are tasty and not poisonous. This can be a curse and not always a blessing, I guess. Diane

nanadoll I would love to say I made that wreath, but it was one I found on etsy. Alas, it's sold out

Oh Mari you tease! I thought you made it too! It is quite impressive and gorgeous isn’t it? I wonder how long a wreath like that would last.

Thanks all, I think I will dry them for tea.

Rose hip soup is a staple in Sweden. It's made with the fresh pulp of the common wild rose, Rosa canina. You cut the hips in half, scoop out the seeds with a coffee spoon and make soup with the flesh. Or dry it for tea. (I'm reading what I just wrote to my husband and he says that we must buy rose hip soup tomorrow, because he must have it soon.) It comes ready made in a carton here. It is a common after school snack for children, often served with vanilla icecream. If I can be bothered to pick hips I make a preserve to go with game and other meats. I make it with vinegar, sugar, and cinnamon sticks.

One can buy rose hip jam in East European stores. It's really good, but I suspect homemade is better. Mariannese, the soup and preserve you make sounds really good.

Rose hip tea is loaded with vitamin C.

I was under the impression that rose hips had to be cleaned fairly thoroughly or the 'hairs' around the seeds would cause digestive issues. Can you skip that step if you dry the hips? My major hip setters form small hips, so much cleaning is not going to happen, and I've stuck with rose petals for eating because they are much easier.

You get their "hairs" only once you cut them in halves. Even though I don't think those hairs really caused any digestive problems, but it seemed they stuck in my throats similar to fish bone not that painful though. It goes away eventually. Or could be itchy on your skin. But it can be fixed by washing hands.

As for drying you just run the string trough the berry with a needle. So no any issues with "hairs" in your tea.

If you want to make preserves then you just clean halves off it and then wash. You won't have any problems then. And I think high temps when cooking them make them less hostile :)

In WWII when Britain was having incredible trouble getting food stores in by ship, (as the Germans were sinking most of them) they collected rose hips from the zillions of British gardeners, and used them as a source of Vit C for the population.

Jackie

You can actually grow roses from the seeds. They have to be stratified first.