Get hip this autumn
By Arlene Marturano

The fruit of summer roses, the hip, remains and beckons to be plucked.

While blossoms of summer roses are fading, their fruits, the hip, remain, often turning bright red after the first frost and beckoning to be plucked and appreciated just like other delicacies of the season: persimmons, pecans, and pumpkins.

In past centuries the rose hip was used as a food and medicine. Hips surpass citrus in Vitamin C. Hips were used fresh, dried, or preserved to make tangy yet sweet flavored syrup, jam, jelly, puree, and tea. Today, hips are in vogue again for their health benefits.

When selecting fruit for recipes pick hips from roses which have not been sprayed with chemicals. Old roses introduced before the beginning of the 20th century like damasks and rugosas yield the best culinary hips.

To prepare hips for recipes, trim the blossom and stem ends with a knife, cut in half lengthwise, remove the tiny hairs and seeds, and rinse well.

To dry hips, spread the prepared halves on screening or trays in a dark dry well-ventilated place, in a dehydrator, or an oven at the lowest setting.

Store dried hips in glass jars in a cool, dark location. Refrain from using aluminum utensils or pans with rose hips since aluminum destroys Vitamin C.

Rose hips produce more than food. As seed pods they open the adventure of propagating roses from seed. Hips are mature and ready for harvesting when they turn from green to red, yellow, orange, or brown, depending on the variety. The skin may start to wrinkle too.

Four simple steps will have you growing roses for your garden and as gifts for others.

Step 1: Cut ripened seed pods in half and remove the seeds.

Step 2: Soak seeds in a bowl of water overnight. Viable seeds will sink to the bottom. Discard the floaters. Pour the water with viable seeds into a sieve and place the "sinkers" into a zip lock bag with moist peat moss. Seal the bag and place in the refrigerator for 6-8 weeks to simulate winter.

Step 3: Remove the seeds from the refrigerator and sow directly in seed starter cells containing moistened sterile soilless mix. Cover the cells with a plastic bag to simulate a greenhouse. Place in a 70 room. Check soil moisture regularly.

Step 4: When seedlings have true leaves, transplant to individual pots and keep in a well-lit warm area. Add liquid fertilizer every 14 days.

The gift of a homegrown rose bush gives the receiver unending bouquets.

Get hip this autumn with packages of pleasure left by summer roses.

Rose Hip Tea

1 cup boiling water

1 tsp. dried rose hips

Pour boiling water over

dried hips and steep.

Arlene Marturano is a master gardener, writer, and educator. As an advocate of gardening as a tool for learning, she helped develop the Carolina Children's Garden at the Sandhill Research and Education Center. She is an education consultant with T.E.A.C.H.

marturano@yahoo.com