If you are using 'dog rose' hips for their vitamin C content, it helps to stew them first and drain off the liquid because there are lots of little hairs around the seeds. Strain it through a fine mesh - a bit tighter than for flour. (Proceed as if you are going to make either rose hip syrup or jelly. About the same quantity of water.) You could probably use R rugosa hips also. They're far less fiddly to skin and clean! A peaceful job for by the fire in mid- to late autumn. Catch them while they're still fleshy and before they 'mummify' on the bush over winter.

i have several different types of rose seeds. it is true that they can cross, but if you just want to grow some kind of rose it works out. if you want to grow a named cultivar than you would have to go buy a named cultivar or get some roots or cuttings. i love roses personally, named or unnamed doesnt matter to me. i especially like wild roses, so i gather wild rose hips. i also have a large yellow rose that i collect seed from (may have crossed) a big pretty pink rose (also may have crossed), and some white rugosa roses (unlikely to have crossed and tested for good germination) seeds. the wild roses and rugosa roses have different kinds of very simple flowers, unlike a big fancy rose flower. if you are interested let me know. Here is a link that might be useful: click here for my trade list

Were they hybrid varieties to begin with? If so then what you will get from their seeds normally will be two to four (on average) different types depending on their parental lines. That is assuming only two parents. If they were older open-pollinated (heirloom) varieties then their seeds will usually breed true. And since you cross-pollinated them the variables increase to 16-20 if hybrids. So you will need to grow out most of the seeds, select the ones with the characteristics you want to keep, grow them out, select again, etc. Normally it takes 6-7 generations of selecting and growing out to stabilize a cross-pollinated hybrid variety. Dave

I googled Pride of Tryon, it looks pretty. :) Yes, sorry mine are hybrid teas - Don Juan and Golden Showers (shrub version not climber)/ Seeds may be pollinated by each other or a nearby pink hybrid tea or maybe the pink minirose. I just got a Double Delight also, it hasn't bloomed yet, but if it does it might end up as a pollen parent for a later batch of seeds. What I personally want are big fragrant blossoms with lots of petals, I don't really like the kind of roses that only have a few rows of petals. And I'd prefer ones that will be okay as freestanding shrubs and are cold tolerant for zone 6.