Hi all,
Quick question:
When do you all start collecting hips from the bushes?
What do you do with them after you have removed the hips?
ie: do you store the hips for a while or do you remove
the seeds right away?
Thanks, I just want a quick and easy guide for this year.
Marleah
Here in the netherlands i collect the hips in october. The hips has to be colored. Because of the low tempature and donât want to have sprouds to early i store the hips for 8 weeks in the fridge. All in a sealed bag. After that i take the seeds out of the hips and clean them. I put them on white sand in the fridge and waith for germination.
In east Tennessee, a lot of species hips ripen in July (after bloom in April, sometimes in late March). Were I to wait to harvest them, thereâd all drop off and be squirreled away by our rodent population.
The time to harvest hips will depend partly on when the cross was made and partly on the parents and partly on the part of the country (which will influence both preceding factors). You didnât say where you live, so itâs hard to give an answer for you.
First, you can be sure that a hip is as ripe as itâs going to get when the stem turns yellow or brown. Usually some hips with some viable seed start dropping 60-80 days after pollination, so itâs good to patrol the garden to make sure that the critters donât eat the dropped hips. Hips from hardy species crosses may drop a lot earlierâsome are fully ripe 6 weeks or less after flowering.
Second, crosses of most other varieties (HT, FL, etc) are fully ripe by 14 weeks (or whenever the hips change color) if the hips hang on that long.
Two recent forum discussions of this topic may be found at http://rosehybridizers.org/forum/message.php?topid=8598#8598 and http://rosehybridizers.org/forum/message.php?topid=11843#11863
Peter
Another thread that may be of interest:
Link: www.rosarianscorner.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=2671b6cce4d06fb22aa6ec505c30eb2e;act=ST;f=14;t=17717
Hello to all!
I have had my difficulties with R. glauca seeds over the last two years in terms of germination. So I have been trying to get more information on this subject, already starting with the time of collecting hips and extracting seeds.
In a German scientific study on the harvesting time of rose hips of botanical species, I found the following information:
When harvesting the rose hips of the Rosa sect. Caninae, it is important to avoid an overlaying of the seeds. Therefore, the seeds of this section should be harvested before they are fully ripe. On the other hand, seeds of the Synstylae section should be collected when they are fully ripe.
I am also not quite sure whether it really makes sense to subject R. glauce seeds first to a warm stratification period, which I had used so far. Likewise, changing temperature intervals after the cold stratification period did not work either with these achenes. I had only few gerninations in total.
What do you think about this issue or do you have a good working recipe?
Many thanks!
If you havenât seen this forum topic on R. glauca it may be of interest to you - it has various ideas for germinating. I am also looking forward to some other replies you may receive (and any updates from your experiences 
) regarding R. glauca.
Thank you for your reply and for the helpful link! I had probably launched my research under the wrong keyword germination instead of growth and therefore didnât really find what I was looking for. Anyhow, regarding to this information I will do some changes to my germination cycle with R. glauca seeds and report on the development.
Hello all!
Just to summarize what Iâve found:
I remember mentioning to Will Radler, the hybridizer of the Knock Out Roses, about letting the hips color up completely before picking them. He looked at me and said âwhy?â. I didnât ask him to elaborate, but I inferred that he thought it was ok to pick them a little early before completely red/orange.
In my northern climate often my hips arenât completely colored up when I have to pick them before frost. I havenât kept detailed records, but I donât get the impression that it is a terrible problem.
Someone once mentioned when the color goes from the hip a little onto the stem that means theyâre ripe.
I feel that it is important not to let the seeds dry out. Remove them from the harvested hips ASAP and immediately put them in moist peat.
Some species require a warm period before the cold stratification, and I donât think it hurts most seeds to have that, so I keep them at room temperature in slightly moist peat until December, when I put them in the fridge.
I guess I might be trying to imply that picking hips a little early is better than a little late (wrinkled, drying hips), but when processing partially green hips it is especially important not to let the seeds get dry before placing them in moist stratification. Basically shell the hips from one cross and get them into the moist medium before doing anything else.
I donât have scientific evidence for this.
Starting harvesting mine today - those that survived ice pulverizing on the vine. Most hardies were colored up.
Earliest - full hardy species bloomers - were showing some desiccation of hips.
Rugosas crosses harvested were fat red plump and juicy - they are not early bloomers in my garden except Therese Bugnet.
Leaving prized moss crosses with laxa and European tender crosses with laxa a week or so until hint of color - not dessicated and no color except mildew white green.
Moss parent hips were full orange - yellow last year - but no germinations.
I have not had any problems with germination from rose achenes that were completely dried, but I have had problems with rose seeds that were stratified fresh from the hip. The only time I ever had major mold issues where the seeds were clearly killed before they had a chance to germinate is when I didnât dry them first. I usually dry them for at least several weeks to several months without any ill effects. I also try to scratch them just after removing them from the hip to damage or remove the thin, juicy aril, and I soak the dried achenes in water for multiple hours (ideally eight) before stratifying. If the aril dries on the achene intact, it seems to act as a water-repellant layer, and initially keeps the achene from absorbing moisture (that could even lead to the impression that the dried seeds wonât sink and are bad, even though they would sink just fine once the achene has been hydrated a bit). If the fresh aril is left on during stratification, in my experience the decay organisms that attack it may continue to work until they destroy even the seed. At the same time, the aril might contain germination inhibitors, and probably needs to be broken down somehow. Damaging and drying it first (damaging helps it to dry faster, while near removal makes for an even better guarantee) seems to reduce its usefulness to the most harmful microbesâit might be similar to the effect of drying grass clippings or fruit waste before composting them, versus composting them fresh. I also think that if a roseâs natural dispersal agents ate the hips and seeds, the arils would almost certainly be destroyed during the animalsâ digestion, so it is logical that some simulation of that process might help improve germination success.
Stefan
A big thank you to all of you for sharing your experiences! Maybe this time Iâll succeed in getting my R. glauca seeds to germinate better. I will report.
My goodness!
It is so interesting how Stefan and I have come to basically the opposite conclusions.
I have based my methods on things that Iâve read here combined with intuition and a bare minimum of pseudo-scientific observation.
It would be fun to do more formalized trials, but I will probably not be the person to do that.
One of the variables in my setup is that I am using unsterilized Minnesota sedge peat as a stratification medium. I think this peat has both beneficial microbes and anti-fungal properties that might help inhibit fungal infection.
Maybe with so many variables everyone has to try to figure out what works best for them.
Joe
Intuitively I like the idea of giving R. glauca seeds a moist and warm stratification period prior to cold stratification.
My problem is getting polyantha or multiflora type rose seeds to germinate. For instance, I have collected tons of OP Darlowâs Enigma seed and seem to get less than 1% germination. David Zlesak says a steady 50 degrees F is best for them, and I donât really have such a situation. But maybe it is also something else with my harvesting, shelling, and stratification methods?
I tried moist stratification after harvest last year based on reading Dr F Svejda (mother of the explorers) method blurb.
Result were scientific proof a lot for me to learn about technique and tweak the method ⌠thought 5% peroxide would smoke fungus germination ⌠nope a ruddy white furry mess.
Abandoned and went back to just below zero C stratification for seeds after peroxide washing, and for a couple of months ⌠nada âŚ
⌠except for that yearâs season tiny R beggeriana seeds for which no warm stratification was done, except by Canada Post ( can take awhile). Drop them to below 0C stratification then warm - moist stratification.
An abundance of riches was the result, and the misleading impression, what an easy species to geminate ⌠canât understand why others had trouble in the past.
Hi Joe! Your comments about having issues germinating Darlowâs surprised me. When I grew it in Santa Clarita, it seeded everywhere, like the blamed âThe Giftâ! I watered twice weekly, overhead with a water wand. The âmediumâ was native desert adobe with copious fresh horse manure mulch. Birds and other critters ate hips and spread seed. They only germinated where I watered as the ârainsâ were focused during a two to three month period in winter. They may have germinated but they didnât continue growing until they received hose water. Or, perhaps they did but the legions of rabbits ate them? There were many volunteers under the parent plant.
It is indeed very interesting to learn how much the routes to the various aims vary.
So far, I have also based my methods on some experience values here in the forum combined with intuition and gut feeling. This has worked well for me for most species seeds like R. rugosa, R.foliolosa, R. virginiana, Portland roses, R. pimpinellifolia and some others.
Last season, for example, I decided according to a simple feeling not to apply R. stellata âMirificaâ achenes to an upfront warm treatment, but instead subjecting the seeds to a 4-month cold stratification immediately after harvest. This was a good decision, as the germination rate was really satisfactory.
I normally use after seed harvesting with a following 24 hour water bath a 4- week warm stratification period before changing into a cold stratification process. The same I did with R. glauca achenes the second year in a row without success, which is why I felt the need to change my concept with this species.
Unfortunately I have no patent germination recipe for polyantha and multiflora seeds. I always have too few seeds of this type but I keep hearing about difficulties.
When I first started hybridizing, I always heard and read the stern warnings to never let the achenes dry out, so were always a bit cautious about drying them.
Thanks to MidAtlasâ convincing experience and argumentation, I will put my worries to one side and give it a try.
Chapter 3 contains Dr F Svejda âdetailâ on her germination method. How convenient l received my copy today from a friend of a friend, with first friend getting it to Alberta.
Scored new fresh copy today.
Interesting info of test done for dyed water up take differences for âdifferent varieties of rose seedsâ. Some variability she considers significant.
Book by her and National Roses Canada (publisher). Photo info below.
More details than l had from blurb.
Book copyrighted so no subject text photo allowed from my hands. Will give non plagiarized word version later if demand after l have done microscope retentive reading - if no one can find public domain paper.
Second friend during pickup donated a nice healthy mossman for my garden for try number âXâ after first friend said l was looking for one - nothing beats networking to share.
Stunned by heritage and Edmonton roses by Terry R in garden their garden ⌠threatened mid-night raid.
Joe, I would say that out of all rose classes, Synstylae seeds like those of DE have probably seen the greatest improvement in germination success using my current method. The percentage seems pretty high. I stratify at normal refrigerator temperatures, too.
Stefan
