Rose - Dog Rose (Rosa canina)

Dog Rose (Rosa canina)

Dog Rose is a great plant for wildlife, offering a protective habitat and food supply for birds and small mammals in the winter, nectar for insects and bees in the summer, and a foodplant for several moths and butterflies. Rosehip syrup made from it has twenty times more vitamin C than orange juice! The petals can be used for a variety of things, from rose water to syrup, sorbet, or even Turkish Delight.

There are more roses in hedgerows than one might think, but they're often not allowed to flower by enthusiastic hedge cutting farmers. Dog Roses, with their fast vigorous growth and thorns, are excellent plants in a mixed hedge or grown on their own in a single species hedge. It will grow to 5m; much bigger than the more slender Field rose, Rosa arvensis, another common hedge plant, but which only has white flowers. The Japanese Rose, Rosa rugosa, is an increasingly common site in hedgerows and looks like canina, but is a non-native.

Why "Dog"? No-one really seems to know. It may be a corruption of Old English "dag", as in dagger, referring to its thorns.

Plants For Sale

Like all our native trees and hedging, our Dog rose plants have UK provenance and origin - that's to say they're British grown using seed from trees here. We're selling our 60-90cm Dog roses in multiples of 5, and other bigger plants - if available - singly.

Suppliers: RV Roger, Oakover Nurseries

See our planting and size guide for details and tips on planting. These Dog Rose plants are all bare root, and are consequently available for delivery from November until March. During this period there may be up to two weeks delay between placing the order and dispatching, due to weather conditions or pressure of orders, which are dealt with in date sequence. Orders for Rosa canina placed between March and September are confirmed in October ready for dispatch from November.