Using Rose Hips for Christmas: Natural Crafts and Winter Garden Inspiration
As autumn settles and the days take on a crisp, silvery light, the garden begins to quieten. Blooms fade, leaves fall, and roses offer their final gesture of the year. Their hips, glowing in reds and soft oranges, brighten bare stems like small lanterns and bring warmth to the stillness of the season. These fruits have long carried a nostalgic charm, recalling winter walks, simple festive gatherings and the comforting traditions of Christmas. Rose hips are easy to collect. Choose firm, brightly coloured hips and snip them with a short length of stem attached. A gentle rinse is enough to prepare them for craft or cookery.
Rose hip jam and jelly capture the soft fruitiness of the hips and offer a welcome brightness in winter. For jam, halve the hips, scoop out the seeds and simmer them in water until tender. Blend into a puree and cook slowly with sugar and a little lemon juice until thickened. The result is fragrant, sweet and lovely on warm bread or stirred into porridge. For jelly, simmer the cleaned hips until soft, strain through muslin to produce a clear, ruby-coloured juice, then combine with sugar and pectin. A gentle boil brings it to a set, creating a delicate jelly that looks beautiful on the table and adds a charming glaze to winter dishes.
Rose hips also support the creatures that share the garden. Birds such as thrushes, finches and blackbirds turn to them when food is scarce. Leaving some hips on the plant helps sustain wildlife through the colder months and brings welcome movement and birdsong to the quiet winter garden, where their brightness lifts even the stillest days.
A Simple Rose Hip Wreath
The rich colour and smooth shape of rose hips make them perfect for festive craft. They pair naturally with pine, seedheads and evergreen foliage, creating a calm, seasonal decoration. For those wishing to make a wreath, a dedicated page offers gentle guidance on crafting a foraged rose hip Christmas wreath, with suggestions for choosing materials and arranging them with ease.
Decorating the Festive Table
Rose hips bring warmth and quiet elegance to winter arrangements. A bowl filled with hips and evergreens makes a natural centrepiece, while smaller jars of mixed hips, fir and rosemary add gentle touches along the length of a table. A single stem tied with ribbon at each place setting lends a simple, thoughtful detail. Candlelight deepens their colour, giving the table a soft, inviting glow.
How to Make a Foraged Rose Hip Christmas Wreath
Rose hips make especially beautiful wreaths. Some roses carry large, rounded hips that glow like small lanterns; others produce little clusters along long stems, giving height and movement. Using a mixture adds life and texture. You might take a handful from an old shrub in your garden, gather smaller hips from a rambler, and cut a few heavy, bright rugosa hips for colour and weight. Each one has its own presence, and together they create something full of interest.
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From Flower to Fruit: How Hips Give Life to New RosesAt David Austin Roses, the greenhouses are alive with energy as thousands of young plants grow and develop. This is the stage where the next generation of roses begins to take shape, starting with the formation of rose hips, the small fruits that hold the seeds of future blooms.
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The Beauty of Ripening Hips: A Season of Promise in the Breeding GlasshousesOur breeding team shares what this special season means to them, as the hips ripen in the glasshouses and the next generation of roses begins its journey.
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Using Rose Hips for Christmas: Natural Crafts and Winter Garden InspirationAs autumn settles and the days take on a crisp, silvery light, the garden begins to quieten. Blooms fade, leaves fall, and roses offer their final gesture of the year. Their hips, glowing in reds and soft oranges, brighten bare stems like small lanterns and bring warmth to the stillness of the season. These fruits have long carried a nostalgic charm, recalling winter walks, simple festive gatherings and the comforting traditions of Christmas. Rose hips are easy to collect. Choose firm, brightly coloured hips and snip them with a short length of stem attached. A gentle rinse is enough to prepare them for craft or cookery.
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The Perfect Gifts for Gardeners this ChristmasAs the garden rests and daylight draws in, Christmas becomes a lovely moment to surprise the gardener in your life with something thoughtful. The right gift can brighten the quieter months and carry the promise of beauty when spring returns and the roses wake again.
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Roses in the Shadow: English Roses for Shaded SpotsWhen we speak of “shade” in the garden, it is important to be precise. Few roses will prosper in deep shadow, but many are perfectly happy with four or five hours of sunlight a day. Think of those north-facing walls or quiet spots that bask in morning or evening light. These are not wasted spaces; with the right roses, they can become some of the most enchanting areas of the garden.
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Creating A Living Wall With Climbing RosesA living wall has a way of transforming a space, turning a simple surface into a quiet theatre of petals, scent and shifting light. When English Roses form the foundation, the display becomes generous and enduring. Their repeat blooms, soft colours and naturally graceful habit bring depth and character to any vertical space, whether it is a boundary fence, a warm house wall or a tucked-away corner that needs a little life.
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Introducing The King’s Rose (Ausa27a16) : A New Chapter in the GardenThe King’s Rose is unlike anything we’ve bred before. With its soft stripes, gentle fragrance and natural charm, it marks a distinctive new direction for the David Austin® collection. Created in support of The King’s Foundation, this rose brings together beauty, purpose and a quiet nod to tradition.
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The Perfumed Garden: English Roses That Fill the Air with FragranceSoft light spills across a quiet garden, where the hum of bees threads through the still air and petals tremble with the morning dew. There is a hush here, a sense that time itself slows, inviting the senses to wander and the spirit to rest. In these moments, the perfume of roses becomes more than a fragrance. It is at once familiar and fleeting, a memory, a mood, a gentle companion to the day, recalling childhood gardens, evening walks and the warmth of the sun. Among our English Roses, some are distinguished not only by their beauty but by the generosity of their perfume.
