Rugosa Rose

Rugosa rose is the toughest landscape rose you can plant, the one with the deeply wrinkled (rugose) leaves, the intensely fragrant single or semi-double flowers in pink, white, or magenta, and the enormous, tomato-red hips that appear in late summer and persist into winter. It grows four to six feet with a dense, thorny, suckering habit that makes it an impenetrable barrier. Native to the coasts of northeastern Asia, it has naturalized along beaches and coastal areas throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

In Western Washington, rugosa rose handles salt spray, wind, sandy soil, drought, and poor conditions that would defeat any hybrid tea rose. It is also one of the few roses with genuine disease resistance, most selections shrug off black spot and powdery mildew without spraying. The hips are the largest and most nutritious of any rose, rich in vitamin C and used for tea, jam, and syrup. The one caution: rugosa rose can be invasive in coastal dune habitats, where it displaces native vegetation. The species is invasive in coastal dune habitats where it displaces native vegetation. In residential and urban landscapes away from the coast, it is an outstanding low-maintenance, fragrant, wildlife-supporting shrub.