I've never grown roses, so sorry if this is long and rambling... I have a couple old roses on my property. Some wild and a couple I don't know what other than previous owners great g-ma planted them in decades ago that is still struggling to recover from the neighbor jumping my fence to mow it down a couple years ago. Also got some other I don't know what's that I yanked out and replanted a few years back and finally recovered enough to want to grow again last year. All of them so far seem to make the simpler little fluffy roses instead of the pretty florist ones. Different sized and taste hips on the couple I tried last fall.

This year I'm putting a bit more research into getting a few more roses for tea- I have a new area out back that I'm planning in a long wide border and I'd like to include some roses for tea. One of the first things I learned searching is that tea roses don't necessarily mean roses for tea drinking.... what's good for tasty hips for tea?

And also... places like Burpee and Gurneys sell rose plants that are supposed to be specifically for rosehips for tea. But I tend not to trust those guys for my seed ordering and am extra leery about plants from them. But most of the rose sites I've looked at so far kind of confuse me since they seem to be geared to pretty flowers rather than rosehips.

And there's rose bushes and vines and such- I have no idea where to go with that. The roses would be planted along the fenceline of the border- it would be lovely if I could grow something that wants to vine or bush through the rails of the fence and provide some thorny defense against critters.

And are roses grown for hips difficult to maintain? A lot of rose info out there seems kind of.. intense. A lot of pruning and tending for maximum great flowers. The border I'm planning is going to have a lot of bulbs, herbs, self sowing annuals, bi-annuals, and perennials. Mostly geared to low maintenance and let get a wee bit wild for the pollinators and birds. I have around 250 worth of up to 4 foot deep bed that I have to play with.

I've got goodly time to get responses and plan this. And I'm used to taking a season or few to plant in stuff. I might not be able to get roses this year, but I can start planning and marking where they will go in. And if it makes a difference, I'm a patient gardener with an area I use for a potted plant nursery. I use it every year for multiplying bulbs and growing out herbs, asparagus, and mums and such. If it's possible, can I get smaller plants for less cost and then hold them in pots for a year to let them get bigger?