Wild roses

The freshest, purest roses you can grow are those which are closest to nature. Their delicate, natural flowers disguise a tough constitution: they grow almost anywhere and shrug off pests and diseases. And it doesn't stop there: spectacularly beautiful brilliant red hips carry on the display well into autumn and winter.

Here are some of our favourite wild roses from the range in our garden centre:

Winged thorn rose (Rosa pteracantha): famous for its blood-red sharks' fin thorns glowing like stained glass in sunshine. The flowers are delicate white, appearing in late spring.

Sweetbriar (Rosa eglanteria): possibly the most romantic name in the rose world, sweetbriar is an English native hedgerow rose with cheery pale-pink flowers followed by orange hips.

Rosa moschata: very late to flower, beginning its display of simple white flowers in September and at its best in mid-October when most other plants are going to sleep.

Geraniuim rose (Rosa moyesii): brilliant scarlet single flowers followed by extraordinary hips like elongated goblets in sealing wax red

Burnet rose (Rosa spinosissima): a low-growing rose smothered in simple white flowers all summer, followed by marble-sized gleaming round near-black hips through autumn.

Please ask the staff in our garden centre in Templeogue for more information and advice about growing wild 'species' roses.

View more categories in the category Roses