Hi there, it’s Ken Bolt from Brant Florist and if you’ve never had tea made from rose hips, you really should try it. Roses are one of the most popular flowers in the world and, unbeknownst to most modern people, are also a great source of tasty treats. One of my favourites of those is rose hip tea.
Some of the best varieties for getting relatively sizeable hips from for tea making are Ethyl Rose, Lyda Rose, and Crimson Floorshow. There are several others too, of course, but these three have two things I like: they’re beautiful rose flowers in their own right and their hips often don’t match their blossom colours.
Ethyl Rose, for example, often blooms in white, pink, yellow and other colours, but the hips are nearly always bright, crimson red. They’re about the size of grapes too, making them a great tea source.
Lyda Rose is similar in that the blooms are usually white (the most fragrant) or pink-tipped. Other colours are possible too, of course, but the hips are nearly always a setting-sun orange hue. They’re lovely and they grow upright and nearly perfectly spherical. It’s easy to thin the plant, harvesting hips, while leaving plenty for decorative buds and blossoms later. In fact, it’s recommended if you’re a rose tender.
Crimson floorshow is also lovely for those same reasons. The blooms themselves give the plant its name, with these relatively small roses opening up in a bright purple-red display of crimson. The hips, however, are tightly-bunched little round knobs of bright orange with pinkish-green petals coming out one end. Very lovely and quite tasty.
Most who enjoy rose hip tea have tried Sweet Briar, of course, one of the oldest rose varieties. These are also bright red hips and the Ethyl Rose is a close variant of these long-standing favourites.
Enjoy!
Until next time,
Ken Bolt