The Beauty of Ripening Hips: A Season of Promise in the Breeding Glasshouses

Here we are in October, a golden moment in the year’s rhythm when the hips begin to blush and the breeding glasshouses hum with gentle purpose. For our team at David Austin^®, this is the time for hip harvesting: a careful, deliberate process that lies at the very heart of our breeding work.

As the autumn light softens and the leaves begin to turn, our breeders walk the glasshouse aisles, carefully assessing each hip. The colours tell their own story. Some are still tinged with green, others deepening to a warm red, and it is this subtle shift that reveals when they are ready to be gathered. Each variety has its own signature, a different shape, size and hue. Knowing the right moment for each one comes only with time, observation and a touch of instinct.

Between now and November, we move steadily through the collection, cutting the ripe hips from the plants and keeping their labels close. Every hip carries a cross, the union of two chosen parents, and so each one holds the potential for something entirely new.

Once gathered, the hips are taken into the workroom. Here, the real detective work begins. The seeds are carefully extracted, counted and sorted into their respective crosses. It is detailed, patient work, but it is here that we begin to see how each breeding line is performing, and which combinations might show promise for the future.

Each group of seeds is placed into small net bags and nestled into trays of damp compost. These are then stored in refrigeration to mimic the natural rhythm of winter, a process known as stratification. It encourages the seeds to rest and prepare for germination when the time comes.

In just a month or two, these tiny seeds will be sown, beginning the long journey toward what may one day become a new rose. Perhaps one with a fragrance that lingers softly in the air, or a colour we have never quite seen before.

October, then, is not only a season of endings but one of beginnings, a gentle reminder that every rose, before it blooms, begins here in the patient, hopeful work of autumn.