Our range of Dog Rose bare root plants (Rosa canina)

We have bare root dog rose hedging plants in several sizes.  The 1+0 1 year old specification plants are seedlings (often called whips) which were sown from seed in the spring and are sold during the following November to April months ie they are one year old. We also have 2 year old 1+1 2 year old specification plants, grown as a seedling in the first year and then transplanted to grow on strongly with wider spacing giving access to more nutrients and moisture.  We have dog rose bare root whips in several heights all grown by us in Herefordshire.

We always have several batches of seed of dog rose including UK provenance and the highest quality imported seed so if the seed provenance is particularly important to you, please give us a call so that we can allocate plants from the most appropriate batch.

Dog Rose (Rosa canina) Summary

This is the most common of the four native wild roses that are often seen in mixed country hedging, the others being field rose (Rosa arvensis), the sweet briar (Rosa rubiginosa) and the downy rose (Rosa tomentosa).  Dog rose is extremely thorny, puts out long flexible stems with pretty and quite large pink and white open single rose flowers and then in autumn it has red rose hips.   It can be hard pruned to keep it hedge height and will cope with hedge laying, or it can be left to become a shrub in woodland setting that is not overly shaded because they do like some sunshine.

Soil and situation

Dog Rose is very commonly found throughout the UK.  It will grow on all soil types and in every situation, however inhospitable. It flowers in June after Hawthorn and Blackthorn have finished and is often the only flowering plant in long stretches of farm hedgerows at that time.

Dog roses are found in many farm and country hedges and on the sunnier edges of woodlands and scrub land but will also grow and flower in partial shade.

Leaves, flowers, fruit and bark

The leaves are like cultivated rose leaves, quite dark green, pointed, finely toothed, alternating up the stem, held in pairs.  Flowers are open, pale pink or pink and white, 5 petalled and with many stamens – brilliant for insects. The flowering period is generally late April or early May so it extends the flowering period of country hedging which starts in March with Blackthorn, then Hawthorn in April and then Dog Rose and also Elder later in the month and running into May/June when Alder buckthorn and/or Purging buckthorn can extend the flowering season. Fruits are juicy orange/red oval rose hips and develop in September and October, often with very many on each plant.  The fruits are a food source for many birds. The thorns on Dog Rose are curved so that it can cling on to other species of plant as it grows – its thorny tangled stems help to make a stock proof hedge impenetrable.

The young wood is smooth and green but becomes grey, tough and fissured with age.

Eventual height and growth rate

If not trimmed to hedge height Dog rose will grow to about 3m, a bit more in perfect conditions.  Growth rate is quite fast – putting out long shoots each year after pruning.

Also known as wild rose.  Rosaceae family