[Ansteorra] Re: A&S Question -Rose hips

[Nathan Jones]

Joanna Montgomery wrote:
>Hi!

Hi!

>I need to know how to harvest and prepare rose hips.  I know somebody out
>nthere knows what to do with them. I have access to a bunch if I get them
>quick.

Harvesting rose hips is easy.  When they are ripe in the Fall or Winter, you
pluck them from the bush.  Try to pick the hips that are the deepest red or
orange that you can find.  Preparing them is another story and I leave that
to Mari to go into if she desires.

However, there is no need to prepare rosehips to make them edible.  They can
be eated fresh off of the bush for a tangy treat.  They tend to be pretty
tart and tannic, much like a crabapple.  (Not that suprising since apples
and roses are cousins.) They are very high in vitimin C, higher than oranges
proportionately.  They can be dried and added to teas and such, or used
fresh.

If you want the hips for proprogation of roses, then that's also pretty easy
(sort of).  Pick the hips when ripe, label and store in the crisper drawer
of your refridgerator.  Keep them dark and cold for about six weeks.  Then
take them out and let them warm up for a few weeks.  You can remove the
seeds from the hips after you picked them, or after they have gone though
their first dormant period in the fridge.  Place them in baggies, or plant
them in a sterile medium, keep them a bit moist, and put them back into the
fridge.  [The purpose of this is that roses require a double dormancy in
order to sprout. Cold-Warm-Cold.]  Take the seeds out of the fridge when
they begin to sprout and either plant them in a sterile medium, or, if
you've already done that, place in a protected area outside.  When they have
grown enough to have a couple sets of true leaves, transplant into larger
containers.

If these are hips from last season, then they should be fine for harvesting
and will probably be dried and shriveled on the bush by now.  If they are
green hips from this past Spring's flush, I agree with Mari and I doubt that
they are ready for harvest.  Try to convince the owner not to prune them off
and leave them to ripen.  They should be ready about October.  (Oh, and if
you need a reason to convince the owner not to prune, let them know that
it's a bad time, the plant needs the reserves in that extra Spring growth to
help it get though the heat and dryness of the Summer.]

Hope that helps,
Giovanni di Cellini

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com