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Fall Planting: Rose Hips for Autumn Beauty

Rose Hips: The Second Act of the Rose Garden

Like a sunset at the end of a perfect day, rose hips wrap up the season with a blend of color and natural elegance that may surprise you. The best of these fruits, which range in size from the diameter of a pea to that of a cherry tomato, can compete with blooms for beauty. And they last longer, which endears them to florists and fall gardeners alike.

This month, when summer bloom is giving way to the hips, is the best time of year to search out the ones that will work best in your garden and your flower arrangements. Just scan our list and spend a little time scouting varieties in nurseries and public rose gardens. Many come on disease-resistant rose species; old-fashioned roses, most notably, produce the showiest hips, but a few hybrids have some great hips too. Here are some of our favorites.

Top Rose Hip Varieties

Rugosa Rose (Rosa rugosa) – Also called "sea tomato" for its red, patio tomato-sized fruit. Often produces both hips and flowers simultaneously on disease-resistant, low-maintenance shrubs. Some (like R. r. 'Scabrosa') have hips of different colors, from near chartreuse to tomato red, all at once. Plants flower most of the summer, so hip production is long-term. Most grow 4 to 5 feet tall.
Moyes Rose (R. moyesii) – Hips look like shiny, red 1½-inch-long, bottle-shaped sticks of sealing wax. Red flowers cover this rather large (8- to 12-foot) shrub in early summer. Look for 'Eddie's Jewel', 'Geranium', or 'Sealing Wax' (perhaps the best for hips).
R. glauca – Grown for foliage: gray-green, burgundy-tinged leaves. Bright red ½-inch hips come in shiny clusters, resembling artificial clusters on gift wrap. Pink blooms cover this large (to 7 feet) disease-proof plant once a year, in spring.
Sweet Briar Rose (R. rubiginosa, often sold as R. eglanteria) – Leaves smell like green apples after rain or when crushed. Can grow to 12 feet tall, but hard pruning can turn it into a dense 4-foot hedge. Single pink flowers come once each year, in late spring, followed by a galaxy of ½-inch hips that turn red-orange late in the season.
Chestnut Rose (R. roxburghii) – Buds and yellow-orange hips are spiny, like small chestnuts. Ferny foliage makes a soft backdrop for fragrant double spring blooms. Grows to 6 feet tall and wide.