This is a fun and very enlightening discussion folks! Your story about New Dawn, Kim, seems to support the notion that the extent to which hips interfere with a rose's blooms depend on the "energy" reserves that the rose has to draw upon. Tough as nails roses like Knockout (as Michael mentioned) or the roses Jackie and Zack mentioned have such a reservoir of health and energy that hips are unlikely to affect them much in any climate unless something else interferes with their vitality. Notorious wimps like Tom Brown or Grey Pearl might be killed by one hip any time anywhere, assuming they set any in the first place. In your story of New Dawn, it sounds like the rose was able to build up a greater store of energy reserves in a climate pattern more to its liking, and therefore the hips affected it to a much lesser extent. I was wondering a related question to Michael's - is every rose hip that spontaneously appears on a bush pollinated so as to produce viable seed, and could it matter that you are deliberately trying to get your roses "pregnant" in your breeding efforts, which might take more energy for the rose than a random hip popping up here and there. I'm thinking of the analogy of chickens, and I don't know if it applies here. When chickens have a set of fertilized eggs, they shift all their energies from laying new eggs to brooding and caring for the bunch. The unfertilized eggs that we eat are expected to be "ever-blooming", however, every day or two. I imagine that you're also leaving the hips on the rose far longer than the random hips I encounter, which also makes a difference as you've already said in the recycle rate. Related to your squirrel comment, would it help to tie a netting or panty hose segment over the crosses to keep it on the bush even if the critters mess with it? Exhibitors seem to do something of the sort for show blooms. I could totally see me getting manic if a cross that I've waited years to develop got carried off by a witless tree rat that didn't really want to eat it anyway, and buried it somewhere in my neighbor's yard! Thanks for the enlightenment, everyone! Cynthia

I have had some success with rosa rogosa seeds. They are on there 3rd year and about 10 inches high, so its going to take a couple more years probable to get them to flower. I had a small smattering of germination after the first winter, which is why I kept the container, I placed it in shade for the summer really kinda forgetting about it. The next year, lo and behold another 20 or so seeds germinated in it. Its now finally sitting in the ground at my new place. It might have grown quicker if I didnt take so long to take it out of the milk jug home =). R Rogosa will come true from seed since its a species rose, there a couple dozen species roses you can do this with. Silverkelt

Or, if it isn't turning color, because some will never change and others require specific weather patterns to color up, gently bend the hip's stem to see if it easily releases where it would normally fall off. If it does, it's probably ready. If it doesn't, isn't colored and you don't know how long it's been since it was pollinated, it may not be. If you are talking about something "wild", such as a species rose or some once flowering Old Garden Rose and it's been at least three months since they flowered, it's likely ready. Kim

Oh, ok i never thought about them being chemically treated or heat treated. I don't know how they were dried so ill try them anyways. :) Thank you for your generosity in offering me your seeds, but there is a rose garden nearby so I might just pop over there and "look around". Haha thanks again and enjoy the holidays :)