{{gwi:2110387}}Image by: wintersown

Roses are beautiful garden flowers which can perfume the air with their scent, some are intensely fragrant and some have a much lighter perfume.

Seed saving is easy but requires patience. The seeds develop at the base of a fertilized flower in pods called hips and can take up to sixteen weeks to ripen. The seeds are mature at the end of this time, for most roses the hip will change from green to a range of colors including, yellow, tawny-brown, red, orange, brown, or black.

To collect seeds remove the ripe rose hip and allow it to dry for about a week at room temperature; you will notice it begin to soften and perhaps shrivel a bit. The softened hip is easy to pry open. Inside will be the seeds, they are wedge shaped and can be wheat colored or darker, sizes vary between rose species. Remove the seeds from the flesh of the hip. Rose seeds are hard shelled and drying can take at least a week, longer if the seeds are large or the weather is damp.