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Nootka Rose · Rosa nootkana

Description: A deciduous shrub (to 7 ft.) with large, solitary, pink flowers and purplish hips. Blooms May-July. Rose hips are rich in Vitamin C and provide food for wildlife (and humans!). The leafless shrubs are beautiful sculptures in the winter garden. Our wild roses require no tending and if allowed will eventually grow into thickets, cherished by wildlife for cover and food. Good for hedgerows. Sun/part sun, moist - dry sites.

The Lewis and Clark expedition encountered Nootka Rose along the Clearwater River in present-day Idaho. On June 10, 1806, Lewis wrote: " . . . there are two speceis of the wild rose both quinqui petallous [five petals] and of a damask red but the one [nootka rose] is as large as the common red rose of our gardens. I observed the apples of this speceis last fall to be more than triple the size of those of the ordinary wild rose [woods rose]; the stem of this rose is the same with the other tho' the leaf is somewhat larger."