Wild roses not only look very beautiful, they also produce a lot of rose hips. Here are the most important tips for caring for and harvesting rose hips.
Rose hips have a high vitamin C content
The classic, strongly scented wild rose, which is excellent as a 1.5 meter high shrub or as an opaque hedge can be planted, bears rosehip fruits that are very rich in vitamins. The easy-care varieties dog rose, vinegar rose and apple rose/potato rose have now been cultivated to such an extent that they thrive in almost any sunny to partially shaded location.
Harvest
While in summer - from around June - the delicate pink to intense pink flowers of wild roses delight their viewers, in late summer red-orange rose hips emerge from them. The best time to harvest (September to November) is when the skin of the fruit yields a little when you press it with your finger. The rose hips are harvested whole, made into jam, or a tea drink is made from the dried skins.
The advantage of sweet and sour-tasting rose hips lies in the high vitamin C content, which is particularly effective in winter with or against colds. In addition, the wild roses are an important factor in the conservation of wild bees.
Care
Prickly wild roses get along with almost all soil conditions and usually do not require any extra fertilization. Only in spring and autumn do they tolerate a light compost fertilization, which should be worked well into the soil. In this context, the soil can also be loosened.
After the harvest, the wild rose can be trimmed if necessary. Since wild roses are hardy, they do not need special protection in winter - in contrast to hybrid tea roses. Wild roses are also rarely attacked by pathogens.