Rosa roxburghii Seeds | Chestnut Rose

Angular, pale brown Chestnut Rose seeds, hard-coated and slightly flattened, on a plain background — Chestnut Rose (*Rosa roxburghii*): Rosaceae, described from Chinese garden plants and long grown as an ornamental for its double flowers.

LATIN NAME: Rosa roxburghii

COMMON NAME: Chestnut Rose

Plant Profile

The chestnut rose is the garden form of Rosa roxburghii, a shrub two to three metres tall with arching stems, flattened prickles and small pinnate leaves. Its double flowers are the reason it was grown in China and later in Europe: many-petalled, soft pink, and produced over several weeks in late spring on a shrub that needs no spraying and no cossetting.

It reached European gardens in the 1820s, sent from a Chinese garden by the botanist William Roxburgh’s correspondents, and it was grown in Victorian conservatories and shrubberies for its flowers and for its curious, chestnut-like hips. The single wild form, which fruits freely, is treated as forma normalis.

Science & Biotechnology

The double form is largely sterile, since its stamens have been converted into petals, so it sets few hips and is propagated from cuttings. The single form sets the prickly, flattened hips that give the species its common name, and those hips are the ones studied for their vitamin C content and their ellagitannins.

The species has been in cultivation for so long that its wild origin is uncertain; it is thought to come from the hills of central and western China, but centuries of garden selection have blurred the picture. Its resistance to black spot and to mildew has made it a parent in rose breeding, particularly in work on disease-resistant shrub roses.

Uses & Benefits

In the garden the double form is grown purely for ornament: it is one of the few roses that flowers well in light shade, and its prickly stems make it a useful barrier plant at the edge of a boundary. The single form is the one to grow for hips.

The hips of the single form are used in Chinese medicine and in preserves, and the double form’s petals can be used for rose water. Neither form is a cut flower in the ordinary sense, since the stems are stiff and the flowers shatter, but the shrub earns its place in a mixed border. The double form is still sold under the name Plena, and it is the one most often seen in old gardens.

Growing from Seed

Sow seed in autumn and leave the pots outdoors through winter, since the species needs cold and moisture to germinate; the double form sets little seed, so cuttings are the practical route for named plants. Take semi-ripe cuttings in late summer and root them in a cold frame.

Plant out in sun or light shade in any well-drained soil, and water through the first summer. Prune lightly after flowering, removing the oldest stems and any winter dieback, and leave the rest to arch. The shrub is hardy to about -15 °C and, once established, needs no feeding and no spraying.

Our Take

The old garden form of the chestnut rose, grown for double pink flowers and its tolerance of shade. It is tough, prickly and disease-free, and it asks for nothing but a little room.

Flower Seeds