There is nothing I like more when having a stroll along some random country track than seeing the hedgerows covered in the beautiful pinky white flowers of wild roses. There is something very English about these delicate flowered plants, but they can actually be found all over Europe and America I believe. The difference in size, shape and colour of the flowers is quite vast, as you can see from the pictures below, and I,ve found roses growing entangled with each other which have totally different flowers both in colour and shape even though they are growing so close that you would think they were the same plant. Sometimes when I,m out and about really early, just as the sun is rising, the air is filled with the delicate, sweet scent of these flowers, especially if there was a little rain or a heavy dew overnight.
INFORMATION
The Dog Rose is a scrambling shrub found mainly in hedgerows and along the edges of woodland but can also be found on grassland and amongst sand dunes. It is the most common of our native wild roses and has lovely sweet smelling pink or white flowers that appear in June and July. These flowers die back and leave bright red ‘Rosehips’ which birds and mammals love to eat, and are also good for the FORAGER as they are a good source of vitamin C and can be used to make various syrups, sweets and jams. I’ve not made anything with the hips myself, other than using them as itching powder to terrorise my mates with when I was a kid, but I think I’ll have a go cooking up something using them this Autumn.
