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.

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

Yes you can keep them in the frig. I wrap my hips in a dry paper towel secured with scotch tape and put them in a plastic bag. Check on them in a week or two to make sure the hips are not getting soft, if they are then it is time to take the seeds out of the hip. You can then clean the orange flesh off of the seeds then wrap the seeds in a damp paper towel and put in plastic bag then back into frig again. Check on them once a week to see if they have germinated. And one more thing and it is the most important part, you must do this .................. you have to post pictures of your new seedlings when they bloom. ;) Good Luck!

The Rugosas sucker on their own roots, don't they? Roots spread out & throw up new canes in an ever-expanding patch over time. Might want to find a grafted one if this wouldn't work in your space. Thorniest rose I grow is Aloha Hawaii, a shortish climber whose main canes are literally studded with thick long sharp thorns. Can be grown as a stocky shrub with pruning or allowed to frame the window for a double deterrent. Blooming laterals not as bad as the main canes, but no one could wade through it without a suit of armor. Fragrant double blooms in a range of sunset hues that repeat well & often from early to late here. Lovely fat hips if not deadheaded. HelpMeFind says occasional bloom after the first flush, but Member Ratings average out to Good- from 11 feedback reports. Bloom frequency increased with age here to 4-5 flushes at 4 years old. Nippstress grows this in zone 5b Nebraska. http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.39802.4&tab=1  Keep in mind that it would be a barrier if you ever needed to exit through that window, though. Sue