... growing and hybridizing all kinds of plants in zone 6b Maryland since the 1980's.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Rosa bracteata X (rugosa x palustris)

Took these pictures while out collecting hips.
Three of the four siblings showing the mounding and spreading growth habit - but keep in mind these haven't really regained full size yet.
 Here's a blurry close-up of the thorns on one.
 Here's the foliage on one that shows a strong influence from palustris.
 The open-pollinated hip harvest - see they really aren't sterile!
 And here are the vicious prickles that I've spent the last two days removing from my finger tips because I stupidly insisted on picking them bare-handed. I wised up and used a leather glove and steak knife to extract the seeds. There was typically only one seed per hip, but quite a few had none and a couple even had 2, 3 or 4. Definitely not super-fertile, but certainly not a dead end either! Maybe next year I might even give hand-pollination a try again.

2 comments:

  1. Dang! Those would be better cleaned using a blender!

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  2. You've sure got that right, Kim!
    So... if I remember right, you need to cover the blades with something like duct tape so they don'y destroy the seeds - is that right? And do the hips need to be dry or does it work better fresh?

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