Can seeds from hips that have been dried out for 4-5 years still germinate?
I think it would depend on storage conditions and what type of rose they are from. It can’t hurt to try. I wouldn’t think they they have much chance.
I’ve heard of seed from certain Northern species held frozen and still viable for a number of years.
Thank you Robert. I’ll try the floating test to see if any sink and go from there.
I had some 3 years old ‘Bonica’ seeds as germinated last year. The seeds have been inside the hip indors in my house. Try if this is some interesting seeds Rob.
Hearing about your success with dried ‘Bonica’ hips/seeds gives me encouragement. I’ll give it a try Roger. I do have some interesting crosses dating from 2001 where the hips have been stored in a dry environment. For your ‘Bonica’ dried hips, did you soak them first before opening them or just crush/open the dried hips?
I routinely dry many seeds such as rugosa, banksiae, multiflora and wichuraiana derivatives among others.
Botanical Gardens do usualy preserve dry species rose seeds or fruits. I had diverse results from failure with the very large seeds of chinensis spontanea to success with roxburghii. So so with setigera.
Banksiae old dried seeds did germinate much better for me than fresh ones…
This thread gave me some encouragement to go back and collect some dried OP his from a cultivar I’ve been curious about. I’ll let you know if I get success.
The only time I’ve had success (or tried much for that matter) was with some dried OP hips of Dr. A.J. Verhage. I did get germination. The seedling was very unimpressive.
Rob, i just open the dried hips, then soak the seeds in water for about 22 hours.
Thank you all for your input. I’ll proceed forward using dried the seeds and use roI’m really glad I didn’t toss them out afterall. Appreciate the tip on how you soaked the seeds Roger.
After being absent from this site for about 4 years it’s great to come back and see familiar names and find that everyone is still so very helpful. Thanks again.
Rob, I lost some hips for a year a few years back in the bottom of the old refrigerator that we keep in the garage for my rose breeding and for overflow from the house. When I found them the following year during harvest time, I noted that the hips had dried hard. I also noticed that they were some of my earlier important hulthemia crosses. So not wanting to throw them away, I planted them per my usual routine. Germination was excellent.
Jim Sproul
I was so close to tossing these hips and am so glad I posted this question first. It’s great you were able to get germination from seeds of your hulthemia crosses Jim. I hope you get something really interesting from them.
Some seeds from dry hips from '01, '02 and '03 that I hope germinate:
Folksinger x Applejack
Corylus x R. xanthina
Gipsy Boy x Bayse’s Purple
Mystic Meidiland x Gold Moss
Bella Nitida x R. glauca
Dortmund x Rugelda
Dortmund x Golden Glow
Hansa x Hazeldean
Jens Munk x Hazeldean
Pink Meidiland x Bayse’s Purple
Baby Love x Hazeldean
Awakening x Pink Meidiland
New Dawn x Golden Glow
Purple Heart x Commander Gillette
Sunflare x Commander Gillette
Old Fashioned Romance x (Westerland x Dornroschen)
Pink Meidiland x Nitida Defender
Golden Celebration x Illusion
Pink Meidiland x Carefree Sunshine
Nitida Defender x Corylus
New Dawn x Commander Gillette
Iceberg x Commander Gillette
New Dawn x Fire King
New Dawn x Dornroschen
Dornroschen x Carefree Sunshine
Cardinale Hume x Black Jade
Graham Thomas x Gold Moss
Some OP hips from same time period:
Cardinale Hume
Amy Robsart
Illusion
Morden Ruby
Lemon Blush
Graham Thomas
Dornroschen
Autumn Fire
L83 (R. foliosa x R. rugosa)
Tender Blush
Nyveldt’s White
Christopher Columbus (striped shrub)
Mystic Meidiland
Carefree Sunshine
“Gipsy Boy x Bayse’s Purple”
Cool!
Thanks Jadae. 
I found a treasure trove of hips/seeds today that were still packed away:
Pristine Pavement x Peppermint Twist
Seafoam x Applejack
Prosperity x Applejack
White Flower Carpet x Party Girl
Cardinal de Richelieu x Black Jack
Folksinger x Lemon Delight
Cl. Jeanne Lajoie x Lemon Delight
The Fairy x Pink Meidiland
Illusion x Lichtkonigin Lucia
Leverkusen x Lichtkonigin Lucia
Gipsy Boy x Basye’s Purple
The Fairy F1 x (Heritage x Westerland)
And OP seeds:
Basye’s Purple
Basye’s Amphidiploid
Commander Gillette
Russelliana
Gipsy Boy
Red Flower Carpet
Henry Kellsey
Wild Ginger
La Belle Sultane
Constance Spry
Coral Dawn
Golden Wings
Hansa
L83
First Light
Pink Meidiland
Cl. Jeanne Lajoie
Sea Foam
Square Dancer
Vivid (bourbon)
Sevelliana (Buck)
I’ve had the first germination from seeds that were stored since 2001-2003. The first to germinate are from openly pollinated L83 seeds after 4 months in the fridge. I was beginning to wonder if any of those old seeds would germinate. Hopefully more will as well.
Congrats Rob!
What is “L83”?
Robert, concerning what is “L83”, see:
http://www.rosehybridizers.org/forum/message.php?topid=9020#9791
Link: www.rosehybridizers.org/forum/message.php?topid=9020#9791
Fascinating. Thanks!
Good heavens! That is a lot. I do know, that for some species roses the seeds naturally germinate over a period of several years. Some people think they may have evolved that way so that if any one year has bad conditions there will still be some seeds germinating next year and the next. Although most modern roses don’t tend in that direction, I would imagine that in most roses, to varying degrees, there would be some built in tendency for lasting viability in a dry seed.