Rosa rugosa

Several years ago I planted some of these roses with the idea to harvest the hips for their vitamin C.  They are reputed to have a high amount of C.  The plans haven't worked out too well, the roses grow good and look nice.  They are about 3' apart and have grown to about 5 or 6 feet tall.  They have some bloom all summer long.  The problem is the little grub that ends up in the hip.  I am a confirmed beef eater, not a grub eater.  We could probably cut open the hip and scoop out the contents, removing the grub, and that would probably work fine.  We just haven't got that desperate for vitamin C yet.

Most are this beautiful pink, while a couple of bushes produce white flowers which you can see in an earlier post.


Immature hips.


Ripened hips.


An opened hip with the intruder and his excreta.


The bushes are set in BOBBs. Buried Open Bottomed Buckets.  This method of planting has worked fine for the roses.  It limits, although doesn't totally eliminate, suckers.  Helps to control weeds in amongst the branches, have you ever tried to pull grass from among a thorny cane?  It also helps to deliver water right to the roots.  The tayberries are also set in BOBBs and are doing good in them.  Not so good are the raspberries.  I don't know if it was the raspberries that failed or just the execution but I will probably pull them out and try just planting them in the ground sans the BOBBs.