I don't know how many gardeners -- what percentage -- are like me. I don't like cutting flowers for display indoors. I love bouquets, but I always feel I am cheating the garden out of what rightly belongs to it. A good friend of ours, florist and gifted gardener, protested my silliness. "But you should cut them! It's good for them; they'll produce more and everyone will be happy! Enjoy them!" I know he's right, but I still have a hard time forcing myself to do it.
I don't, however, have any such qualms about picking fruit or vegetables from the garden for our benefit. So what if a plant I grow for its blooms also produces fruit? One of my favorite roses, Old Blush, produces large hips if left on its own. I've always been interested in making rose hip jelly, but I am basically too greedy for blooms to give hips a chance to grow. Knowing that the more I prune, the more flowers this nearly ever-blooming shrub will produce, I remove spent blooms as often as I can.
The flowers, while not the spectacular bourbons I favor, are pretty, abundant, and have a light, sweet fragrance.
Pretty, ever-blooming flowers, sweet fragrance, healthy foliage -- what more could one ask of a flower? But that's not all Old Blush is good for. It's a fairly large, dense shrub, growing up to six feet, sturdy, disease-resistant, and makes a fine hedge. It is also very easily propagated. The first photo, in fact, grew from one of my own cuttings. Which brings me to my point: having two large, healthy specimans, I decided to finally try and let the hips grow. They really are so pretty. I won't pick them until they're nice and rosy (ha -- wish I could say that the perfect pun was intended). Yes, I want rosy rose hips!
I love 'Old Blush'! I have a plant that is several years old - don't remember exactly when I got it - and it never fails to provide me with blooms for much of the year. I just cut it way back in August and now it is coming back and has buds already. It is indomitable!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Dorothy! "Indomitable" describes it wonderfully well!
DeleteBeautiful! Good luck with the jelly.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gunilla!
DeleteYour hips look fabulous! I am always behind on deadheading, so I usually end up with rose hips even when I don't intend to. I've never tried rose hip jelly. Let us know your recipe!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Holley! I will definitely post a recipe if it turns out well! :)
DeleteI am just learning a bit about rose hips since our new home has some established rose trailers. Like you, I don't cut flowers to bring inside--I prefer to let them grow outdoors and add color to the landscape.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your new home and garden. I feel the same in that it seems a pity to remove flowers from the garden when they're blooming happily.
DeleteI am with you -- I never pick any flowers from the garden. I only picked once this year to pay homage to my mother on her 1 year anniversary of passing away. I leave them there because I find that bees, butterflies, other insects and birds have more need of them than they are being inside my house. Also, they never stay long in the vase without those chemicals and which I refuse to use. Huh! I heard about rose hip but never knew what those are. Are they the things left after flowers done blooming? I need to find out.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to know that in leaving the flowers where they grow, I am in good company! Yes, the hips are the fruit left after the flower has bloomed. Not all roses produce hips; I think out of our many rose shrubs only four, maybe five produce jelly-worthy fruit.
DeleteI've got a bunch of rugosa roses. The heat usually ruins the flowers, but the hips are still very pretty in the fall. Sometimes I think about making tea, but that's as far as it gets. Good luck with that jelly!
ReplyDelete