Greetings and salutations,

Late Autumn and early Winter is a great time for roses, huh! I hear you say, what no flowers?  Well, flowers are what causes an interest for roses in the depths of Winter, hips!  Hips are the seed capsules, fruiting bodies, fruit or something like that.  Open one up and you will see rose seed, sometimes one or two or three or many.  Hips are very high in vitamin c, so they must be good for you!  Hip jam is also very tasty, you will find it in supermarkets.  Who would make it?  Imagine trying to separate the flesh from the seed and other bits in the hip.  What a job!  Here’s a tip, buy it off the supermarket shelf instead.

Anyway, hips come in a multitude of sizes and colours and shapes.  The heritage and specie roses usually have the most attractive ones and depending on the time of Autumn and Winter, differing rates of ripening and decay.  Check out these hips I found in my garden.