Surprising with its unsurpassed vitality, wild rose, colloquially referred to as "dog rose", is a plant common throughout Europe, Western Asia and northern Africa.
A habitual shrub with delicate pink flowers and thorny shoots is found everywhere in Russia and is so famous that it has become invisible, but also indispensable in the surroundings of forests, meadows and gardens of middle latitudes. The shrub received the funny and unusual name "dog rose" because of its close relationship with garden roses and the practical use of fruits and leaves in the treatment of wounds from dog bites in European countries in the 17th and 18th centuries. Let's talk about this most interesting plant, its cultivation and care features.
"Dog rose" description
Belonging to the extensive Rosaceae family, rosehip is a deciduous spreading shrub that grows up to 2-3 meters in height. Its straight, but more often curvedor falling stems with green bark on current year shoots or reddish on older ones, protected by thorns, strong and very sharp. On the main stems they are rare and straight, on flowering shoots they are frequent and flattened at the base.
Complex pinnate leaves with 5-7 serrated leaves, with sharp tips, bright green above and bluish on the reverse side, reach 7-9 cm in length. The flowers are pink or white with a different range of shades, there is also a "dog rose" yellow with pale yellow or yellowish milky flowers. Ripe after pollination, the false bright red fruit has a length of up to 2.5 cm, it is large, oval or spherical, glossy-smooth, with pinnate incised, downward-pointing sepals. From the inside, on the walls of the fruit, there are many bristly hairs with hard grains of fruit nuts located between them. "Rose dog", or ordinary, blooms in May-July, the fruits ripen in August-September. Growing on forest edges, clearings, in light forests, along river banks and roadside roadsides, rose hips light up ruby fruit stars by the beginning of autumn.
Application
The unpretentiousness and decorativeness of the shrub have found application in the garden interior. Many gardeners of temperate latitudes do not imagine the fence of the site better than a dog rose hedge, achieving two goals at once - a reliable fence and healing fruits. All parts of this plant are endowed with medicinal properties - roots, fruits, leaves, flowers "dogrose". All of them, to a certain extent, have anti-inflammatory, analgesic and restorative properties. For example, fruits and preparations from them help in the treatment of heart failure, hypertension, vascular problems and skin diseases, leaves alleviate conditions with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys and lungs, and seed oil is used to treat burns, bedsores, frostbite and trophic ulcers.
Rose hips are also good in single plantings. It tolerates pruning well, after which it branches vigorously. But this wonderful shrub is valuable not only for these qualities. "Rose dog" - a great rootstock for garden roses, frost and drought-resistant, surviving in almost any conditions. Consider the necessary agrotechnical measures for cultivation and care.
Landing
Rosehip "dog rose" grows well on soils of any structure, but prefers loam, neutral or slightly acidic. It is so unpretentious that seedlings in containers with a protected root system are planted during the entire growing season. If the roots of the seedling are open, then the recommended dates are spring or early autumn. A sunny place is chosen for planting, but the shrub develops well in semi-shaded areas. The plant is planted in previously prepared soil (it needs to be dug up with the introduction of humus 2 weeks before the planned planting).
The size of the landing pit should be slightly larger than the volume occupied by the root system. Afterwhen planting, the soil around the plant is well tamped, but not trampled down, as there is a danger of damaging the roots and making it difficult for the seedling to take root.
"Rose dog": propagation by cuttings
Rose hips are propagated on the site by seeds, layering or cuttings. All of these methods are very effective, but experienced gardeners prefer cuttings. Propagation by lignified cuttings is the most convenient, time-saving method for the gardener and allows you to keep the mother bush in excellent productive condition.
Cuttings 15-20 cm long are cut from last year's fruiting stems. Each of them should have 2-3 he althy growth buds. For their rooting, seedling containers about 50 × 20 cm in size with drainage holes at the bottom are filled a quarter with expanded clay, fine gravel or brick chips, two quarters with well-mixed soil, the composition of which is as follows: humus, river sand and perlite in a ratio of 4: 1: 0, 5. Cuttings are planted at a distance of 10 cm, deepening into the soil at half the height. To accelerate the survival rate, the cuttings are treated with a growth biostimulator before planting, for example, "Kornevin", dissolving the drug in water, following the recommendations in the annotation. By autumn, rooted cuttings are transplanted to a permanent place.
A bush grown in this way enters into force and begins to bear fruit already in the 3rd year after planting.
Green cuttings
Not only lignified cuttings are used in the propagation of such a plant as "dog rose". Rosehip "dog" is goodpropagated by green cuttings. They are cut in early July. At this time, the intensity of growth of new stems is already decreasing, it is from them that cuttings are cut so that each has 2-3 internodes. To improve rooting, they are kept for several hours in a biostimulant solution (“Heteroauxin”).
The cuttings prepared in this way are planted under glass or film, placing them at a distance of 5-8 cm from each other and maintaining a distance of 10 cm between the rows. The first 2-3 weeks, rooted seedlings should be watered regularly. They fully take root in about a month, this can be seen from the emerging growth. From this time on, the film cover is removed, and the seedlings gradually adapt to the environment. Green cuttings give a good increase in shoots by autumn, but many of them require high-quality shelter for the winter, as they do not always have time to get stronger in the cold.
Propagation by layering
Rosehip "dog rose" is also successfully propagated by layering. You can do this both in spring and autumn. From the annual growth, the strongest shoots are selected and pinned to the ground in several places in pre-prepared grooves filled with humus. Growing new shoots pile up the earth. The next year, the seedlings are separated from the mother bush and planted in a prepared place. This method is simple and effective, but its disadvantage is that during the winter, young shoots can be damaged by rodents, and as a rule, no more than two shoots are obtained from one stem.
Seed propagation
This method is usually not used by gardeners for reasons of significant time costs. In addition, the germination of seeds usually does not exceed 30%, they germinate heavily and only after a long process of stratification. Yes, and collecting seeds is a very difficult task. They are removed as follows: the collected unripe fruits are crushed, rubbing through a sieve, freed from pulp, placed in a container with wet sand and stored in a basement or refrigerator, constantly moistening.
In autumn they are sown, deepening by 1-2 cm. During the winter, viable seeds finally stratify and germinate by mid-summer. A bush grown from seeds begins to bear fruit after only 4-5 years.
Cutting
Rosehip bushes grow quite quickly, losing their decorative effect, and need formative pruning when they reach the age of three. Pruning is carried out in autumn or early spring, forming a bush and cutting out diseased, broken or growing branches inside the bush. The overall height of the bush is also trimmed, focusing on their own ideas or the rules of the garden landscape, according to which the site is designed.
Caring for rose hips
Despite the fact that the shrub is drought-resistant, regular watering increases the yield and overall decorativeness of the bush. In addition, watering is required for young plants. For them and shrubs grown for harvest, additional nutrition is also necessary. Plants are fed in the spring with high-quality organic matter - humus, compost, rotted manure or long-term fertilizer for garden roses. Behindlack of organic fertilizers during the season spend three fertilizing with mineral fertilizers.
The complex of care activities also includes regular weeding, or mulch the soil under the bushes and free themselves from the removal of weeds for the whole season. The listed methods of agricultural technology are not burdensome for the gardener and are suitable for all types of wild rose ("dog rose"). Varieties of wild-growing roses, to the family of which the "dog rose hip" belongs, are numerous. All of them are highly decorative, bloom for a long time and generously, giving gardeners joy and satisfaction.
