Roses have been grown for many centuries and for many reasons. Today we grow roses mainly for their beauty but in the past, the rose was valued as a food and medicine as well. Rose hips, the small berry-sized, reddish seeds left on the tips of the stems are the seed pods of roses. All roses should produce hips, although the old fashioned shrub types, such as the rugosas are said to have the best tasting hips. These are also generally the largest and most abundant. The hips are usually left on the bush until after the first frost, which turns them red and slightly soft.

Rosehips have a tangy sweet flavour and can be used fresh, dried or preserved. The simplest use is to steep them for tea. Rose hip syrup, puree, jam, jelly and sauce can also be made. In World War II, the people of England gathered wild-grown rosehips and made a vitamin C syrup for children. At that time citrus fruits from the tropics were difficult to import because of the war at sea and it was too cold to grow these vitamin C rich treats in English climes. Volunteers spent many hours gathering hips from hedgerows for making rose hip syrup for the Ministry of Health to distribute. They boiled these up and strained them through a muslin bag to make a syrup which had orange juice added.

Rose hips are reported to have up to 60% more vitamin C than citrus fruit and are rich in bioflavonoids, which are important to build and strengthen body tissue. Rose hips are taken today by many as a natural way to get vitamin E and K, as well as vitamin C. It helped prevent and treat various infections, such as colds and flu.

You must be careful to use only hips from roses which have not been sprayed with pesticides. To prepare, trim off the blossom and stem ends with scissors, cut in half lengthways, remove the tiny hairs and seeds at the center and rinse. Never use aluminium utensils or pans as they tend to destroy the vitamin C. To dry hips, spread the prepared halves in a dehydrator, or in a dark, dry, well-ventilated place. They can be stored in glass jars in a cool, dark pantry.

A few rose species are sometimes grown for the ornamental value of their hips. Rosa moyesii and its hybrids and garden varieties have prominent large red flask-shaped fruits; an amazing sight in winter when they are bare of leaves and the long-lasting fruits are displayed to full advantage.

It is also well worth growing Rosa rugs and its hybrids for their cheery winter display of bright, red rounded hips, as well as their beautiful flowers. Other species and their garden varieties good for their hips are Rosa davidii, and R macrophylla.

Roses are propogated from hips by removing the seeds from the aril (the outer coating) and sowing just under the soil surface. The seeds take at least three months to germinate and only those taken from true species are likely to closely resemble the seed parent. Rose growers cross-pollinate roses with desired characteristics and the resulting seedlings are selected. Often thousands are grown in order to produce only one worth propogating for the nursery trade.

- sourced from Fairfax Media. 4th June 2009