Cinnamon rose

Cinnamon rose: how do you recognise it?

Habit

Upright, dense shrub about 1.5 m tall and wide, forming a clump through suckers.

Stems

Slender and red-brown (cinnamon-coloured), with thin prickles in pairs below the leaf joints.

Leaves

Grey-green, 5–7 leaflets with a softly downy underside.

Flowers

Single, deep pink flowers of about 5 cm, fragrant, in May–June.

Fruit

Round, red hips of about 1–1.5 cm in autumn.

Flowering: May–June · Harvest and fruit: June and September–November · Plants: March–April and October–November · Pruning: June–July

Why grow it?

• One of the earliest roses: it flowers in May, when other roses are not yet open.
• Fragrant pink flowers that attract bees.
• Red hips in autumn, a food source for birds.
• Extremely hardy and tolerant of damp soil, where many roses fail.
• The red-brown twigs add colour in winter.
• Very little maintenance and well suited to a natural or wild hedge.

Cinnamon rose: where does it grow best?

• Sun to partial shade.
• Almost any soil: sand, loam, clay or peaty soil, acid to chalky.
• Normally moist to damp; it tolerates temporarily wet soil, but not permanently standing water.
• An open, windy position is no problem: it is very tough.
• Give it plenty of room (1.5 m or more) and expect suckers; as a hedge, 1 m per plant.

Light

Sun and partial shade

Soil type

Sand, loam, clay or peat

Acidity

Not fussy

Moisture

Normal or wet

Size

1.5 m tall, 1.5 m wide

Hardiness

Hardy (to -40 °C)

Goes well with

• Hawthorn: A native hedge shrub that also flowers in May and feeds bees and birds.
• Guelder rose: White flower heads in May–June and red berries for birds.
• Dogwood: Red winter stems and strong autumn colour, a good companion in a wild hedge.
• Hazel: A native shrub for an informal hedge, with catkins in early spring.

Cinnamon rose: when and how to plant it?

Plant in March–April and October–November.

1. Plant in March–April or in October–November, when the soil is neither frozen nor waterlogged.
2. Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball and just as deep.
3. Mix the excavated soil with a few spadefuls of compost.
4. Set the plant at the same depth as in its pot, fill in with soil and firm it well.
5. Water in generously straight away, even if it is raining.
6. Spread a layer of compost or bark around the base and consider a root barrier to limit suckers.

Care

Water

In the first year give a good can of water weekly in dry spells. After that it manages on its own.

Feeding

Hardly needed. A spadeful of compost in spring is enough.

Mulching

A layer of compost or bark in spring keeps weeds down and the soil moist.

Suckers

Cut off unwanted suckers every spring with a spade.

Spent flowers

Do not cut them off: leave them for the hips, which feed birds in winter.

Tip: Plant it where it can spread freely, such as in a wild hedge, or confine its roots with a root barrier. Leave the hips on in winter: they feed the birds.

Cinnamon rose: when to prune it?

Pruning months: June–July.

When: Prune straight after flowering, in June–July.

How:

• Remove dead, damaged and weak stems.
• Every three to four years take out about a third of the oldest stems at the base.
• Cut or sever suckers where you do not want them.
• To keep it low as a hedge, prune straight after flowering; later in the season you lose hips.

Caution: Do not prune in spring: it flowers on side shoots of last year’s wood, so you would cut the flowers off.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Suckers

In autumn or early spring, cut off a rooted sucker with a spade and replant it at once. This is the easiest method.

Seed

Take the seeds out of ripe hips in autumn and sow them at once in a pot that you leave outdoors. They need cold and often germinate only after one or two winters.

Hardwood cuttings

In October–November take cuttings of 20–25 cm from ripened shoots and push them two-thirds into the ground in a sheltered spot. Success varies.

Cinnamon rose: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −40 °C.

• Extremely hardy to about −40 °C: in Belgium no protection is needed.
• The red-brown twigs and the hips decorate the winter; birds eat the hips.
• Plant it in the open ground rather than in a pot: it is too vigorous for a pot.

Diseases and pests

• Spreading: It forms many suckers and can become a wide mass. Cut off suckers every spring or use a root barrier.
• Aphids: On young shoots and buds in May–June. Rinse them off with water or let ladybirds do the work.
• Black spot and rust: Sometimes black spots or orange pustules on the leaves in wet years. Rarely serious: clear up affected leaves and provide air.
• Poor flowering: Too much shade or pruned in spring. Give it more light and prune after flowering.

Through the year

• March: Plant. Cut off suckers. Give compost.
• April: Plant. Spread mulch.
• May: Flowering begins.
• June: Flowering. Prune after flowering.
• July: Prune: thin out old stems. Cut off suckers.
• August: The hips colour.
• September: Red hips. Collect seed.
• October: Plant. Leave the hips for the birds. Take hardwood cuttings.
• November: Plant. Sow seed in a pot outdoors.
• December: The red twigs decorate the winter.

Edible and useful

Flowers (June)

In June, on a dry morning, pick some of the pale pink petals; leave plenty of flowers for hips and insects. They are edible and give a light rose scent to syrup, sugar or a salad.

Fruit (September–November)

Harvest rose hips from late September, when they are bright red and still firm, or after the first frost, when they are softer and sweeter. They are rich in vitamin C and make tea, syrup, purée and jam. The seeds and their itchy hairs must always be removed.

Storing

Dry halved, deseeded hips on a rack or in the oven at 40–50 °C until hard, and keep them in a closed jar. Whole hips can be frozen, which also softens them. Dry petals spread out on paper in the shade.

Fermenting

Rose hip wine is an old country recipe: the hips are fermented with sugar, water and yeast.

Caution: The seeds sit in a layer of fine hairs that irritate the mouth, throat and gut (children once used them as itching powder): remove them carefully and strain teas and syrups through a fine cloth or coffee filter. Only pick hips from wild or unsprayed roses, away from busy roads. Do not confuse the red hips with the poisonous berries of spindle, yew or honeysuckle, for example.

Eating and using is at your own risk: see the terms of use.

Recipes

• Rose hip tea (Tea · 1 teapot (± 4 cups) · 5 min + 10 min simmering)
• Rose hip syrup (Syrup · ± 750 ml · 1 hour + 2 rounds of draining)
• Rose petal sugar (Other · ± 250 ml · 20 min + 1–2 days drying)
• Rose hip soup (Dish · 4 servings · 1 hr)

Good for wildlife

Bees

Nectar and pollen for honeybees and wild bees.

Birds

Berries, seeds or insects as food, or a place to nest.

Did you know?

• The species name majalis means ‘of May’: it is one of the first roses to flower.
• The cinnamon rose grows wild as far as Siberia, which explains its extreme hardiness.
• The single flowers provide pollen for bees and hoverflies.