What rose produces the largest, sweetest hips in good numbers? It has to be disease resistant as I won't use chemicals.

you couldn't go wrong with rosa rugosa. they produce fairly large hips and are most likely the variety used most. i've heard that rosa canine (dog rose) is considered the best flavor. being in the apple family, they are somewhat like crap apples. not really edible without cooking and adding sugar. i've munched on a few rugosa hips as well as some of the wild roses around and crab apples . not for eating out of hand for sure. they need some processing to be enjoyable. then we face the issue of the added sugar. another story.
google it and there are lots of resources.

Thank you Terry. If I had to sweeten, I may as well use stevia than sugar.

Thanks for the link, Chris.

I grow rugosa roses and may actually have saved some seeds. I grew mine from seed I brought from Canada. They form large hips and the outer covering can be eaten just like that, but inside the hip will have lots of seeds. They are truly cold hardy and never get any disease. Another rose I grow in our extremely humid climate is a Therese Bugnet rose, which is a hybrid of a rugosa plus something else. It produces fragrant double pink flowers (have made rose petal jelly from them). At first the canes are thorny but later as they grow taller they are practically without any thorns. Canes are red colored. I am like you, I hate having to spray with chemicals. Rugosa roses will sucker but if you want it as a hedge that should be no problem. All mine are wonderfully fragrant.

Might even be able to send you some starter plant(s) but might not be sure of the color of the rugosa ones.

Thanks, gispa30. Would you do a trade for a rose plant?

Sorry, I have not come back to this forum and now we have such an early spring (summer really). If you still really want a rugosa rose, please write to me at:

gispa30@hotmail.com and put something in the subject so I know it is not spam. Then I will see what I can do. Gisella

I started with Dog Rose from seed (18 months to germination) and I added Cili Bao a few years ago but its a mountian rose and suffers a bit here in our central Ca summer heat.  Your topic just reminded me that I still have seeds for the Apple rose to plant that I ordered 2 or 3 years ago (darn...forgot all about them).  Does anyone know how long rose seeds are viable?  

MT - many seeds stay viable for years if kept in the right conditions. The only way to find out is to plant them and see!
 I love that process. Something about the anticipation I guess.

Another one you might try is Crimson King. I don't know the Latin name. Maybe google it. I had a neighbor that made some kind of voodoo juice from it. It looked a little strange but tasted like orange juice. And as someone already mentioned the seeds stay viable for years. Sometimes it can take months for the seeds to germinate. So plant alot of them and wait. As they germinate be surprised. That's part of the fun. Matt

Just wanted to thank you guys for the encouragement but I haven't been able to find this again until just now, so...Thanks guys!

I found the Apple rose seeds a few weeks ago along with another I had forgotten about, a red leaved rose (Rosa Glauca). I've been giving them a warm moist treatment and today I'll start the cold moist treatment in the refrigerator...looking forward to a big surprise (hopefully a good one)! :-)