put some netting over it so they don't get eaten. once they start going red or orange they are ripe, harvest them, and donate the seeds - there are a few madame hardy enthusiasts that will be keen to see what grows out.

So there is something unusual here? I've had no luck growing seeds. I seem to forget about them because of Christmas. I thought maybe I'd try harder if there was something unusual going on.
Who would you donate them to?

If your plant is young, you may get a better crop of hips in future years. Most of my roses don't produce good hips until they are well established.

Kaylah,

I would love the seeds.

Robert

Mme Hardy tends to not produce fertile hips because the parts that ought to make seed get taken up by sterile vegetative carples( a normal carple contains the ovum that makes the seed)Mme Hardy is famous for that steeple shaped green eye..I spent some time once cutting open buds and flower receptacles to see if I could make some stab at deciding class based on the interior placement of such stuff-never came to a conclusion. Very double flowers can get their extra petals by co-opting normally fertile parts like carples and stamens..so they are not as likely to make good 'mothers'. I would certainly want to know what your seed is going to produce...I hope some one can sprout them.

patricia

Robert, or anybody, you can have them. What kind of roses do you think you might get? I want pictures on the rose web if you have any luck. There are a bunch of new additions around the yard for fathers. I kind of suspect Quatre Saison Damask.
Madame H has been planted next to Therese Bugnet for ten years. It never did a thing until we got the big rain this year. Also fish emulsion.
Other new roses are Rosa centifolia, Leda, Celsiana, Madame Plantier, alba maxima, Chloris, Gruss an Teplitz, Madame Isaac Perriere, Greenmantle, Ash Wednesday, and Bleu Magenta. There's more, but they haven't bloomed yet.
This is kinda fascinating.

'Mme. Hardy' is sterile, its true. It may occasionally produce a hip but the seeds in it (if there are any at all) are not likely going to germinate. This is one of the most desirable Damasks every created and breeders have undoubtedly made numerous attempts to raise offspring from it, but none exist. Perhaps you have the first seeds it has ever generated, but don't be too surprised if these do not germinate. Its highly unlikely. :-(

I thought of one other suspect and that was Zephirine Drouhin. i moved it to the front to get the shade. Apothecary Rose has a sport now, thornless, and looking similar to ZD, but red. No repeat bloom.
It seems to have ten green hips, pretty small, and other rose hips are turning red, but these aren't. Pretty close to the house.
This is interesting. It hasn't done much all the years I have owned it, but this year it bloomed like crazy.
It's just occurring to me that it is a one man woman. I think there's a possibility, Paul, though remote. if not, these hips will turn brown and rot away, too.
I wonder what parents would have existed in 1832? Now, here's another possibility. We had a wedding, and got our roses wholesale, from a website from South America. Is it possible for a cut flower to pollinate one that's growing in the ground?
I chose the wedding date(June 21) to coincide with the most roses blooming. the weather was so bad last spring we didn't have any. The lilacs were still blooming.