My soil is sand based, amended over the years with horse manure, oak leaves, and decomposed mulch which has turned the top few inches into an organic rich black sand based soil. It grows some pretty good roses although it does require a lot of water.
Rugosas provide some big rose hips that should make good Jelly/tea.
Chances are rugosas were what grew at the beach.
Some rugosas I have that make huge hips are Rotes Meer, Rosa Zwerg, Schneezwerg,Frau, Dagmar Hastrup, and Blanc Double de Coubert. I also have some purple or white species rugosas that grow grow true from seed. They were purchased years ago as whips for a 10 cents each. The others are hybrid rugosas which, like other hybridized roses will not grow true to the variety. I'd recommend getting bushes, not attempting to grow them from seeds. Hansa and Magnifica also make nice hips.
They don't like to be sprayed and are relatively disease free. I deadhead mine and they repeat all summer long. The hips are quite large and form quickly, often before all the buds in a cluster have opened.
Contact me if you can't find any of the ones I've mentioned.
Rugosas grow quickly and can get quite large. As an own root, they sucker readily and can spread quite a bit. Rugosas are super hardy and were used extensively in the Canadian Explorer series.

Go for the species of R. rugosa. They do well this far south and they will give you at least two crops of hips a year. They love sand dunes (to the point of having become invasive in Scandanavia).

I personally prefer the white ones as their blooms are excellent for a pure white (which isn't always an easy color to find.)
If you have the land, you may want to do a google search because the species rugosas can be bought in bundles of ten as whips.

You might also want to try both R. canina, the dog rose, which kept many in England healthy through the darkest days of WWII when other fruits weren't available and R. eglanteria which is used for both hips and the wonderful apple scent of its leaves.

Thank you very much. That's good news because we admired a rugosa rose in the local botanical garden. It was so vigorous and was still blooming when all the other roses were taking a break from the heat. And such a nice, rich pink.

I've never seen one in any of the local nurseries we've visited though.

We were thinking seed because we want a hedge of them along the front property line and can't afford the $20/plant plus shipping. We're on a corner lot and DH had the idea to do a rosemary hedge on one street and a rose hedge on the other for privacy, beauty, and fragrance.

How about ten plants for $50? (that's for the pink ones, the white ones same source are twice as much.)

I'd comparison shop with a nursery called Hortico in Canada; they used to carry own root whips of a large number of different roses.

Here is a link that might be useful: A start

Thanks for the link. I'll show it to DH.

Do you have Soil Conservation seedling sales? Ours sells rugosa whips, among a lot of other things. I think the New Hampshire version does ship.

I've never heard of such a sale. I might call the ag extension and ask.

I have both the red and white species, Magnifica, Frau Dagmar, all of whom sucker and produce great hips. Periodically I remove and root some of the suckers. You are welcome to come collect suckers. I'm in Roanoke. I also go down to SC periodically and could meet you somewhere along I77 and bring you some. Email me if you're interested.

If your area has a horticultural trade show, ask a garden center to let you go as a guest. At the Mid American Horticultural Trade Show in Chicago I got a line on a nursery in Michigan and picked up a bundle of 100 rugosa whips for $20 but this was 8 years ago. They were mixed red or white. Color not determined until they bloomed. This is what you want. E-mail me for further info.
I have a few planted along my property line.

Does Rosa virginiana produce hips worth using?

Oh, and the York Rose, Rosa x alba semi-plena produces hips that could be used. Its white is tinged with peach-pink, so it looks more milky white than pure white, but it's lovely in bloom!

Some people don't care for the colors of Rosa rugosa's later flowers against the color of the ripening hips. If you're sensitive to such things you'll have to consider whether you like the idea of scarlet/tomato red hips adorned with lavender-pink roses. If the idea of that color pair bothers you, go with Rosa rugosa alba. Then you'll have scarlet against pure white.

I grow many rugosas, as they do very well here and are 100% carefree and healthy.
The most hips are produced by:

scabrosa (very large hips!)
alba /rubra
some of the pavement rugosas
frau dagmar haartrup

And in your zone, they should really thrive happily!

Every hip contains so many seeds, that if you want to plant them and only 10% would be successful (but the percentage is in reality much higher!), well, you would soon have a forest of rugosas!

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And here a hip by scabrosa, they are as big as small tomatoes! And grow larger in time.

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Thanks again.

We may have tracked down a local source of hips, not sure yet.

I appreciate the generosity you've shown with your information and your offers of help. If the local source doesn't pan out I'll be in touch.

Again, thank you all for the help.

I'll never forget the day my wife told me we had a red tomatoe growing on our Hansa Rugosa rosebush. LOL