Growing Roses from Seed: Collect Hips, Clean and Save Seeds

Collect rose hips from your garden, clean, dry and save the seeds - these can be the first steps in growing your own roses. I grow many of my species roses this way, including the Sweet Briar rose, the Scots rose and Rosa rubrifolia. From this stage, you can continue on to cool/moist stratification for 8 to 12 weeks, or you can dry the seeds very well and store them at room temperature. I've had some seeds remain viable after 4 years of dry storage. Maybe you can comment below the video if you've kept them longer.

I also made comment in the video about the "floating" seeds viability, and how some of these are empty. That's my experience, but I also have to say that for some species (notably some of my rugosas) basically ALL of the seeds floated, but I still was able to germinate seeds from the batch. So, your mileage may vary.

If you find these videos useful, there are a few little things you can do to help me out:

[atomicfurnace]

I collected rosehips from roses in the park and along the road in my neighborhood in october, procesed them to your instructions and now I have 5 strong seedlings and 1 weak seedling growing in my basement getting ready for spring. Thank you for your advise and instructions! They have a grow light and a small fan and seem to be happy.

[joycerosier]

Thank you !!! Your helping me so much !! You EXPLAIN things so easy THANK YOU GOD BLESS YOU N FAMILY FOR HELPING SO MANY ROSE LOVERS AND GARDENERS !

[jendickerson]

I was looking at my favorite rose bush and wondered if you have a video about rose seeds, and here it is! Thank you so much!!! I am going to collect them as soon as I finish watching your video.

[romanrohacek]

Hi! Thank you for the videos on propagating roses by seeds. I found these your videos really useful. Well done!!!

[bigoldgrizzly]

I have just finished a pretty large tub of hips, stripping seed by breaking open and 'scooping'. I am going to raise plants to go into a 60 acre nature reserve adjacent to my property and have about 4 ounces of fresh seed done. I have just rediscovered something I knew as a child [and put to use], those fine hairs in the hips are an excellent itching powder ! it is amazing how far and wide they get spread on you, since as soon as you start itching, you scratch everywhere with sticky hands and spread more hairs. No real problem, but I'm off for a shower and a change of clothes.

[christinecostello]

Thank you… very good directions… simple & noteworthy 🌹🌹

[Argyll]

Excellent video on collecting rose seeds - will try that in summer.

[davidvalenta]

This soaking technique is the same as I learned to use on tomato seeds, except letting them sit longer so the gel coat essentially rots off, clean seeds are at the bottom..
Thanks! I'll be trying this out..

[homebakermom]

Thank you for this! I love growing from cuttings, but I live in the city and always have to ask strangers if I could take some cuttings. Today, i got some dried hips -- people are less sensitive when I take these than cuttings with blooms.

[patriciancube]

Very informative. Thanks for sharing.

[jonathan_r_lee]

Very similar to saving tomato seeds, neat!

[FragmentOfMemory]

Your video is very helpful!!
I'm trying to hybridize Miniature and HT Roses in Japan from this year. It's just a hoby🌱 But it's not easy to get seeds... my HT rose is Tetraproid and it may be hard to fruit. But I got a few rose hip of Miniatures that pollen is HT. So i want to try planting it's following your instruction! Thank you for your nice videos.

[linebrunelle]

i use hips pulp in tea for vitamin C. so I actually do one hip at a time. lots of seeds and lots of pulp.

[ddobro]

Hi, thank you for these videos. I’m a little confused about your process of soaking the whole hip and cleaning the “mash.” I collected some hips today, broke them open, and the seeds came away very cleanly. Why soak first? Do I still need to soak the seeds after I removed them?

[casaharamys]

Hi Jason! I'm from Brazil and I don't speak English very well, sorry. Can you tell me where I can buy fresh rosehip seeds(Mosqueta -Rosa Canina)? I already bought it on Aliexpress but they do not germinate at all even after applying the germination tips. I love your channel and I'm grateful that you also deny the crooks who germinate anything by deceiving people.

[janiceblakeney]

I collected my rose hips in the late autumn and put them whole in the refrigerator in a glass jar. I left them in the frig for 3 months. It is spring now and I want to see if I can have them germinate. Should I clean and separate the seeds as you have demonstrated and then sow them into potting mixture now? Or have i missed an important step by not removing the seeds from the hips before storing them in the frig for stratification?

[buckhulse]

We were given a number of rose hips of antique roses while on Mackinac Island. After soaking the crushed hips, like in your video and cleaning, I found that all the seeds floated. The rose hips were fresh off the plants and ready, not green. Is this common?

[brewer]

I have yust collect the rose hip you talking about now!! How long time do you need to cold stratifach the seed

[pnatty]

Hi Jason I am new to planting roses. After watching a few of your videos I am excited to start planting my own rose seeds and try to get plants from it. I bought some seeds from Amazon and will try to start now to see if I get things going. Should I start now or wait until November to start? Can I get some ideas please.

[SamanthaSLP]

Hello! Thank you for your informative video. I am wondering about the viability of rose hips a few months after they have ripened on a rosebush. I recently collected some hips that were dried up and wrinkly (they were still on their stems) but I figured I should try my luck anyway. I used your method to extract the seeds and the seeds look fine to me (half floated, half sank to the bottom of the cup). If they are indeed viable, would the seeds need as long a stratification period? It's been cold outdoors for several months already. Thank you!