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 Roses can do more than grace our landscapes
and floral designs. Like its cousins the apple, pear, peach and
cherry, roses produce a fruit. Rose Hips are a valuable source of
vitamin C, containing as much as 20 times more vitamin C than
oranges. They are also an excellent antioxidant.
Growing Roses for Hips
When growing
roses for hips, you'll want to select a variety that produces a
reasonably large fruit that is high in vitamin C. Look for disease
and insect resistant roses that won't require the use of chemical
sprays.
Rugosas are an excellent choice for quality hips, and they
are also a beautiful addition to the landscape, whether used as a
dense hedge or a specimen plant. The flowers have a delightful
fragrance and you'll be tempted to cut armloads to bring indoors,
but try to resist the temptation. Remember, the more flowers you
cut, the fewer hips you will have.
More
about Rugosas
Planting
Roses
Selecting
Easy Care Roses
 Harvesting and Preparing Rose
Hips
Rose hips ripen after they are touched by the
first fall frost. The color of rose hips varies, but in general,
orange hips are not quite ripe, and deep red hips are overripe.
Overripe hips are sweet, but have lost much of their vitamin C.
Rose hips will
have the most nutritional value when used immediately after
harvesting. To prepare rose hips for tea, cut off the bloom stem,
cut the hip in half, and scrape out the seeds and hairy pith. This
can be very tedious with tiny hips, so you may want to save the
smallest hips for jellies. Rose hips used for jellies don't need to
be seeded or scraped. A half and half mixture of rose hip juice and
apple juice makes a tasty jelly.
Rose Hip Marmalade
Use a glass or
enamel pan for this recipe.
- Clean rose
hips as described above for tea, and soak in cold water for two
hours.
- Simmer in
water for two hours.
- Strain and
reserve liquid for jellies or other recipes.
- Measure the
mash, and add 1 cup of brown sugar for each cup of
mash.
- Boil down to
a thick consistency.
- Pour into
sterilized jars and seal
About the Author:
Jackie Carroll is the editor of
GardenGuides.com, a leading internet destination for gardening
information and ideas.
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