What rose species will grow in your area? They often are the best roses for hips (although obviously different species have hips of varying visibility).

Francis E. Lester comes to mind. It is a pretty, old-fashioned single white-edged-pink musk rose. It makes big clusters of pretty little red hips in the fall.

My old friends grew one in their back yard for many years, mainly for the beautiful display of hips.

On the link below, click on the photos tab and find William Grant's picture of the hips:

Here is a link that might be useful: Francis E. Lester

There are two public rose gardens nearby, full of good bloomers for the area. (In fact, quite a few are blooming now.) But they seem to be deadheaded religiously, so I never see any hips.

I did see a nice rose hips poster some years ago, but have had no luck tracking it down.

If they have Rosa alba semi-plena in that display garden (a once-bloomer that becomes a sizeable shrub), I can tell you from personal experience that it sets hips pretty well.

Thanks Petaloid, that looks like a good one! Also, I did find a link to some photos. But I'd love more if people have favorites.

Here is a link that might be useful: rose hip pictures

Darlow's Enigma has tiny little hips that are very pretty. The birds love them

Terry, Palatine roses (www.palatineroses.com) is carrying a new series called Fruitilia roses, grown for their abundant hips as well as bloom. They make lots of hips for the gardener and also provide pretty colors - they are becoming popular in Europe. Big Frutillla is pink with very large orange hips (bush is 4-5' tall), Classis Fruitilla is pink with a white center bloom and large round red hips, Coffee Frutilla has purplish pink blooms and red hips (bush is 1' or so), Orange Frutilla has a bright red bloom and an abundance of orange hips (2-3' bush), and Red Futilla has pink and white blooms with bright red colored hips. You might want to look into them if you want lots of pretty hips.

When you say display, do you mean in arrangements or in the garden? Size for size, Bonica has about the best display. It's not an enormous plant like some of the others on my website, and the display of red hips is very consistent because I never deadhead the plant. You need to be cautious of buying roses touted for hip display that were developed in Europe from European species. The problem is that our much longer California growing season may not agree with these plants. The hips are likely to ripen much earlier than you might want. I have a Section Caninae rootstock in my garden that sets many hips, but they all ripen and ruin before fall even starts. In fact, I have many rotten, black hips in my garden right now, but Bonica remains red and plentiful. If you have room for an enormous 8 x 8 shrub, then Schoener's Nutkana has fabulous orange hips.

Here, the spinosissimas, R.moyesii, are good but R.eglanteria was the best this year.

Sheila, those are beautiful! Where did you get your spins? Do you like them? Do they have fragrant foliage?

What glorious displays of rose hips, noseo and Sheila. I was so uninformed about all this. I knew roses set hips, including a lot of mine, but nothing like this. Why do modern roses not set this many hips? Is it because we deadhead them so religiously? Meanwhile, I offer my pitiful display which we enjoyed in autumn. I wish the huge lone hip from Abbaye de Cluny showed up better in this little bouquet of Morden Sunrise hips. Diane

Beautiful, Diane. I love the chubby bouquet.

Noseometer, I love my spins. They are the most adorable naturalistic plants. They were such a delight in Alaska I cannot tell you. I needed them here too I decided, and they do great here too.

I have acquired them from Vintage, Corn Hill, High Country roses and Greenmantle. I scrounged some from Leonard Heller who had/has a facebook page on Spinosissimas. I bought some from an old lady in Homer, Alaska at "Achin Acres" as she was shutting down. North of Anchorage an old lady had a "Washburn Farm Nursery" that sold some, but I got news on good authority that she mixed the names up on purpose to confuse the competition. They seem to be the roses that owners love and many people have never heard of. Rogue Valley Roses gave me Dominie Sampson. You really have to keep your eye out for these treasures. Peter Boyd was going to write a book on them which never appeared, but he has good articles on the web.

Dominie in front of Doorenbos Selection.

Vintage "Mary Queen of Scots" in back. Marissa from Greenmantle tells me it is not titled correctly but that is what Vintage called it. I still miss "William III" I had from Vintage in Alaska but forgot to bring with me moving South, and now I can't find him anywhere.

Noseometer, my only fragrant foliage is the Rosa eglanteria higher above with the green apple smelling foliage.