What causes rose hips to grow and will these kill my rose bushes

Question

I have about 9 different rose bushes in my garden, of various ages, and a lot of them are growing what I think are the beginnings of rosehips. One person told me to cut them off so the plants don't die, but I'm not sure what to do. Will my plants no longer grow or bloom if I leave the rosehip to mature? I've NEVER seen this before and I have about 1/2 of my roses doing this. Some of the plants are 7-12 years old, others are just two summers old. I live in Ontario Canada, if that's revelant.

Answer 1

The rose hips are  where the seeds form. Leaving them will not kill the rose. Cutting them off may encourage the rose to flower again, depending on the type. I leave mine on. They are a natural food source for the birds. They are suppose to be high in Vitamin c and are made into jellys for people or can be eaten like fruit as long as they haven't been sprayed with pesticides.

Answer 2

Most species of rose form hips if the flowers are permitted to die and remain on the bush.Some roses carry especially attractive hips and these are allowed to remain for colour in the fall.

To avoid the formation of hips,cut off faded roses when the petals fall.During the summer cut back a fairly long stem,just above a leaf joint to an outward facing bud.

After mid-August,just snap off the faded flower.

Leaving hips in situ isn't harmful to the rose bush,keep those which are to your liking and remove dead flowers to prevent the others setting.

Answer 3

Rose hips are the rose seeds in the casing.I never bother to cut them off,and usually they die off before I give the bush a prune which is in our Winter in July.You can if you want to take off the hips.I  think they look quite decorative on the bushes.But your plants won't die because of the hips.

Answer 4

Rosehips are  the seed pod of the rose. If you remove the first ones you will probably get flowers longer, but as we get toward fall and winter you can leave a few on especially on the rugosa type, you can make tea out of them (If you havent used any nasty insecticides on them) and they have a lot of vitamin c.