Photo Kritzolina, CC BY-SA 4.0

Rose hips

The red fruit of wild roses: where to find them, when to pick, and getting the hairy seeds out.

What you need

Know the bush. Wild roses are thorny shrubs with pink, five petal flowers in summer, along shores, barrens, roadsides and the edges of the woods.
Wait for the fall. The hips turn bright red or orange, and after the first frost they soften and sweeten.
Pick the ones that are full coloured and give a little when squeezed. Leave the shrivelled and the mouldy.
Top and tail each hip, split it and scrape out the seeds and the hairs around them.
For tea, crush a handful of hips, steep them in hot water for ten minutes or so, and pour it through a cloth to catch the hairs.
Dry the cleaned halves on a tray somewhere warm and airy until they are hard, and keep them in a jar.
The flesh makes a good jelly or jam with apples, and the hips hang on the bush into winter when little else does.

Don't

Do not eat the seeds and hairs. They itch in the mouth and throat and upset the gut.
Do not boil the tea hard for a long time. Steep it.
Do not pick a red fruit unless it grew on a thorny rose bush.

Danger

Other red berries grow in the same places and some are poisonous. A rose hip grows on a thorny rose bush, is shaped like a small egg or ball, and is packed with hairy seeds inside.
Thorns go through cotton gloves. Wear leather or pick slow.
Damp hips go mouldy in a closed jar. Dry them hard first.

Rose hips are one of the richest wild sources of vitamin C, which is why they were picked through lean winters and in wartime.

See Plants to leave alone, Berries worth picking and Labrador tea.

rose hipstea foragingfall

Updated 2026-09-29