Hi folks,
One pathetic bud of Autumn Damask tried its best to bloom this week but the season here is over. I’ve already collected my deliberate-cross hips, but when cleaning up the garden I decided to collect the self-pollinated hips as well. Trouble is, most of them have gone … soggy. They’re soft to the touch and you can easily, if not cleanly, squeeze the seeds out. Does anyone know what causes this? And are the seeds worth collecting?
Fara,
I’ve seen that with rugosa roses and attributed it to over ripeness. That only a guess. The seeds from those hips always seemed to germinate well though.
It may be over ripeness, and on the hand may just be a very ripe and juicy hip that got frosted, and when these juicy fat hips are picked and just allowed to sit, they also get mushy.Unless this variety does not like to germinate when allowed to over ripen, they should be as fertile as others. Good luck with it, and process it as with others. Many a specie variety in the wild has this happen.
I’ve encountered that for years, on just about every rose I’ve grown. It honestly does just seem like “over ripe fruit”.
I often get squishy hips if they get hit by an early frost. It’s never seemed to matter as far as germination goes. It does make them messy to clean though, lol!