North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Spidra Webster <spidra@speakeasy.net>]

On Jun 5, 2006, at 6:44 AM, Lon J. Rombough wrote:

> The species grown for hips commercially in Sweden and other parts of 
> Europe is Rosa dumalis, a relative of R. canina.  I have some and the 
> flavor and character of them is (to my taste) better than R. rugosa.   
> They are firmer than rugosa, which makes it easier to scoop the seeds 
> out, and a lot more productive.
> Robert Osborne of Corn Hill Nursery in Canada has some excellent 
> rugosas.  He has written a book on cold hardy roses that includes 
> evaluation of the edibility of the hips of the varieties.  Corn Hill 
> can ship roses to the U.S., too.  You should be able to find their 
> website easily.


Thanks, Lon. That's a nice site.  I can see where it would come in 
plenty handy for Canadians and USians living up north. Doesn't look 
like he carries dumalis, but the USNA germplasm repository does.  
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Research/WLPGR_NA_site.html  However, I've 
never ordered material from a germplasm repository and don't know if 
they'd allow li'l ol' me to do so. Is it no big deal?

Spidra Webster
USDA Zone 9b. Sunset Zone 17.
Berkeley, CA "Athens of the West"

http://www.spidra.com