Oh so hip

Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland

- John Hoyland

API RESPONSE

The thrilling days of early summer have long passed, the intoxicating perfume of the roses and the dizzying brilliance of their flowers a distant memory. Some roses, however, have not finished enchanting us and are now producing colourful hips that seem to have been designed to sparkle in the low light of autumn. They have none of the plant's flamboyance of a few months ago, but their charm and simplicity are a perfect accompaniment to the gentle descent into winter.

Rose hips are the capsules that contain the plant's seeds and, given the opportunity, all roses will produce hips. Most gardeners tend to deadhead their roses, either to encourage re-flowering or to have a tidy shrub, thus preventing the plant from producing seed. There is little point, however, in doing the work of removing spent flowers on roses that do not produce a second crop, so leave those varieties alone and enjoy their autumn fruits.

First appearing as tough green berries, as the nights draw in and the temperature drops, the hips' skins soften and their colour changes, usually into a range of tones in the orange-to-red spectrum. In general, species roses (the wild ancestors of garden hybrids) and rambling roses produce the brightest hips in the most generous quantities. Most species hold the hips in clusters or small groups, but, occasionally, they appear singly, growing on the end of stems. Rose hips stay on the plant longer than most haws and berries: birds will first devour the succulent berries of elder and viburnums, only attacking hips late in the season when they have become wrinkled and soft.