Dog rose: planting and care of the native wild rose

The dog rose (Rosa canina) is a native wild rose of hedges and woodland edges. The shrub grows 1 to 3 metres tall, with long arching stems. From May to July it flowers white to pale pink, followed by oval red hips. Dog rose needs sun or partial shade and soil that does not stay wet for long.

Dog rose at a glance

Leaf

April to October

Flower

May to July

Fruit

September to February

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

How do you recognise a dog rose?

Start with the leaves. Each leaf has five to seven leaflets with a toothed edge. The leaflets are hairless, with no tiny glands on the underside. Crush one between your fingers and you smell nothing. That sets the dog rose apart from sweet briar, whose leaves smell of apple.

Each flower has five petals and is 4 to 6 centimetres across. A ring of yellow stamens fills the centre. The stems carry stout, thick prickles, most of them curved like a hook.

The hip is oval and red-orange, 1.5 to 2 centimetres in size. After flowering the sepals fold back. They drop before the hip ripens, so a ripe hip has no crown.

At first glance the Japanese rose (Rosa rugosa) looks similar. The difference is quick to spot, though. Japanese rose has wrinkled leaves with seven or nine leaflets and many straight prickles. Its flowers reach up to 12 centimetres across, and its hip is wider than it is tall.

Where does dog rose grow best?

Dog rose grows in full sun and in partial shade. Full sun means the sun falls straight on the spot for more than six hours a day around midsummer. Partial shade means three to six hours. Sand, loam, clay and chalky soil all suit the shrub, which is not fussy about soil. In the wild it grows in hedges, on verges, in dunes and on dikes.

Dog rose struggles in these spots:

• A hollow where water lies after rain. The roots need soil that drains well.
• The edge of a narrow path. The stems arch far out, and the hooked prickles catch your sleeve.

In January the shrub is bare. Red hips still hang from the long, arching stems, as long as the birds have not eaten them.

JuneJanuaryThe border with dog rose in June and in January. A generated image, not a photo.

If the dog rose is to go in a wild hedge at the back, place the shrub on the map of your own plot in the app first. The app draws the plant at a grown plant's width, not at pot size. Then set the width to 2.5 metres. That shows how much lawn the arching stems will take up.

How to plant and care for a dog rose

Plant dog rose bare-root, with no soil around the roots. That works in late autumn, once the leaves fall, and again from late winter to early spring. A potted plant can go in the ground all year, but not in frost or drought. Dig a hole twice as wide as the roots and one spade deep.

Leave 2 to 2.5 metres between a free-standing dog rose and the next shrub. On planting day that looks like an empty patch around a few thin stems. A few years later the arching stems fill the gap. Water in the first two summers whenever it stays dry for a long time.

Pruning in February or March leaves the hips to the birds all winter. Many birds nest from March through July, some into August. In those months, look for a nest in the shrub before you cut.

What goes wrong with dog rose?

Shoots grow without flowers. These are called blind shoots. A spot that is too dark can cause them, or bad weather that damages the tip. Cut such a shoot back by half, to just above a strong bud.

The leaves get yellow spots, with orange powder underneath. That is rust, a fungus. In late summer the powder turns black, and the leaves sometimes drop early. Cut out infected young stems in spring straight away. Clear up fallen leaves in autumn, because the spores overwinter in them.

The leaves look pale and mottled. That is the work of the rose leafhopper, a pale yellow insect under half a centimetre long that jumps away. The shrub usually grows and flowers on regardless. Nothing needs doing.

A new shrub barely grows or dies. If a rose grew there before, the cause can be replant disease. Roses are prone to it, even when the old one was in the ground for only a few months. Replace the soil in the planting hole, about 60 centimetres wide and at least 30 centimetres deep, with soil from elsewhere in the garden.

Which birds and insects visit dog rose?

In late summer greenfinches often sit in the dog rose, eating the hips. Thrushes visit the hips less often, and very occasionally a waxwing turns up. House sparrows like to use the shrub as a meeting place.

The shoulder stripe (Anticlea badiata) is a moth whose caterpillars live on wild roses. Dog rose is one of their food plants. This moth is fairly rare, and the provisional Dutch Red List rates it as susceptible.

Is dog rose poisonous?

Dog rose is not known to be poisonous. The risk sits in the hip: under the flesh, the seeds lie in a layer of fine hairs. If swallowed, those hairs can irritate the mouth and the digestive tract.