Hedgehog Rose
Rosa rugosa rubra - Shrub

A versatile and worthy addition to any garden. With the minimum of attention and being highly resistant to all of the usual rose problems, this rose will produce masses of fragrant, single, yellow-centered flowers from July to September. These are followed in the autumn by attractive, tomato-shaped, red or orange-red rose-hips.

Buy Rosa rugosa plants

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Vigorous and repeat-flowering, informal in habit. Can be used as a part of a mixed border, as a hedge or as a apart of a wild garden. Vivid green wrinkled (rugose) leaves turn a butter colour tinged with red in the autumn and the hips are the source of much excitement amongst various finches and other small seed-eating birds.

• Height and spread: 2m x 2m (6ft x 6ft), rather open growth, good security barrier, not so good visual barrier (easy to see through)

• Position: full sun or partial shade

• Soil: fertile, humus-rich, moist, well-drained soil, but not very fussy.

• Rate of growth: fast-growing

• Flowering period: July to September

• Flower colour: purple / pink /red - or white (the alba variety)

• Other features: excellent cut-flowers, incredibly prickly stems, a good security plant

• Hardiness: fully hardy

• Garden care: Before planting shorten thick roots to 25cm (10in) and reduce top-growth to an outward-facing bud 8-15cm (3-6in) above ground-level.

• Uses: Hedging / mixed border / wild garden

• Planting distance when used for hedging: 30-45cm, 12-18"

• Clipped height: 1.5m, 5ft

• Number of times to clip per season and when: 1, spring

• Pruning: Prune in the dormant season from autumn after the leaves have fallen to spring before the buds break. If there are hips still on the stems, leave them for the birds and prune when all have been eaten. Trim old stems back as desired and remove the occasional (1 in 4 or 5) stem completely.

• Responds to renovation?: Yes, by taking out stems completely, leaving one in two or three longer but trim these by up to a half of their length.

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Buy Rosa rugosa plants

Photo credits: (numbering left to right top to bottom) 1-Arnstein Ronning - Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. / 2-Borealis55 - Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 license. / 3-Emoke DenesA - Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. / 4-Kurt Stuber - Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. / 5-Rosa rugosa bud Public domain / 6-Rosa rugosa Sakhalin Public domain / 7-Rosa Rugosa Public domain