Rosehip is a long-time and faithful companion of mankind, received the romantic name "May Rose" due to the early flowering period. Strictly speaking, the right to be called that way has only one type of shrub, namely Rosa majalis Herni, or brown rose. Although people call the may rose and any of its other varieties.
Rosehip: plant description
Like any other subspecies, the May rose is a bush that, under favorable conditions, can grow up to two and a half meters. It has thin branches - at a young age they are covered with a reddish-brown glossy bark. As it ages, it takes on a brownish tint.
If we are talking about a plant such as dogrose, the description must necessarily include a mention of thorns. All rosaceae have them. Cinnamon rosehip is no exception. On young branches and at the bottom of the bush there are much more of them, they have a straightened shape. In the upper half, the spikes are slightly curved, thicker, and spaced less frequently.
May rose blooms very beautifully, and even in an uncultured version. The flowers form quite large, not collected in a brush (single), consisting of five petals. Usually they are painted in pale pink, but scarlet are also found. The flowers give quite weighty fruits with a smooth skin, round or egg-shaped, bright red-orange in color.
Medicinal use
As you know, dogrose is a medicinal bush, and its effect is very versatile. Mostly used fruits that contain a significant amount of a variety of vitamins.
In addition to the immunostimulating effect, rosehip drives bile, eliminates constipation, and has a diuretic effect. It accelerates wound healing and bone fusion, eliminates anemia, and helps treat chronic liver diseases and malaria. Oil, squeezed from the seeds, treat burns, dermatitis of various origins.
Contraindications
Hypertensive patients and people with a tendency to thrombophlebitis and thrombosis should be wary of treating and preventing rosehips. Certain intake restrictions exist for the kidneys and cores. And, of course, you should not drink broths instead of tea: an excess amount (two liters or more) will definitely bring only harm.
May rose planting
Despite the fact that it is considered by many to be a wild-growing plant, it is often and willingly cultivated in personal plots, and for decorative purposes, since the dogrose blossoms (photo can be seen in the article) are magnificent and beautiful, and for harvesting medicinal fruits. Moreover, if you correctly choose the living conditions for him and provide minimal care, he will give a very plentiful crop.
The landing place needs to be selected well and illuminated for a long time. It is desirable in high places, where the absence of stagnation of both ground and sedimentary waters is guaranteed. For several years, the root system of the May rose floodes the entire space around, so the bush needs to be fenced with slate, dug into the ground a third of a meter in depth. A dogrose sits either around the perimeter of the site, becoming a natural hedge, or in the most uncomfortable places for the gardener, such as compost piles and utility buildings. The main thing is that the rosehip bush should not be alone: the plant is cross-pollinated, and without neighbors-relatives it will not produce a crop.
May rose care
In principle, dogrose is an unpretentious plant. But, like any living organism, it gratefully responds to care. First of all, it should be manifested in cropping. Thinning begins at 3-4 years of life of the May rose. Ideally, a bush is formed containing from 15 to 20 branches of different ages, but not older than seven years, when the fruiting practically disappears. Pruning is carried out in spring - autumn can kill the bush, as the cuts winter poorly.
Rose hips (photo can be seen above) do not require regular watering - it has high drought tolerance. With a prolonged absence of rain, the plant is watered at the rate of 3-5 buckets, depending on maturity and fruiting.
Feeding necessarily need a young landing. In the second year of life, nitrogen-containing fertilizers are applied three times: in early spring, when the earth is only completely thawing, in the first half of summer (during the period of intensive formation of shoots) and before falling asleep in September. The adult May rose is fed every three years with compost or humus, followed by loosening, watering and mulching.
Dogrose breeding
May rose can propagate by all means available to plants. However, the seed is not too recommended: valuable properties are not always fully transmitted, and fussing with seeds may be inconclusive. The most reliable is seedling propagation carried out in the fall. In central Russia, landing is conducted from early October to mid-November. Under a sapling, a hole of twenty centimeters is dug. If the soil in the designated area is acidic, liming is carried out. Compost mixed with overripe manure is introduced. The seedlings themselves are shortened to 8-10 centimeters before rooting. You can also make root sections - so the survival rate will improve significantly. Next, the roots are dipped into a clay mash, and the seedling is buried in a hole with a neck deepening 6-8 cm below ground level.
To preserve the signs of the mother bush, reproduction by rhizome offspring is selected. Their harvesting is carried out either late in the fall, or in the earliest spring. Two methods are proposed:
- The selected offspring of not less than a quarter meter in height is chopped off by a shovel from the main bush and planted. Such actions are available both in the fall and in the spring, but not all offspring survive with them.
- The selected baby does not separate, but spuds and is constantly watered. This stimulates the active growth of the subordinate roots. The following year, in the fall, the offspring is separated, but not transferred to a new place of residence, but left next to the mother's bush. He sits only in the spring.
This method gives 100% survival and a complete repetition of all the qualities of the original rosehip bush.
Harvesting
Rose of May is very reluctant to part with its fruits. Therefore, they should be collected exclusively with gloves, not cloth, but leather or canvas. Berries begin to be removed approximately in the middle - the end of August, when they acquire a saturated shade. Collecting everything at once is not the most competent approach: part will be already overripe, and the other will be unripe. You need to remove the fruits as they ripen, without delaying or delaying: if you do not have time to harvest before the first frost, you will greatly lose the quality of rose hips.
Harvest must be sent immediately for drying. For it, you can use the oven, heated to 90 degrees. Dry fruits are poured into cloth bags; if they are prepared correctly, they can be stored for up to two years.
The most promising varieties
May rose due to its healing qualities is widely cultivated; in addition to wild varieties, there are garden varieties of rose hips. There are more than six dozen. However, the following are considered the most successful:
- Tambovchanka . The bush is undersized, which facilitates the collection of fruits. The studding is average, and the spikes are slightly bent, have the shape of a hook. The fruits are large enough - up to 4.5 grams each. Productivity is high, up to five pounds from a healthy adult bush. Particularly attractive is a variety of very high winter hardiness. In flowering, it is very decorative: the buds are large, bright red.
- Hedgehog . Blooms in large raspberry cups. There are many thorns, they remind needles. By growth - average. The fruits are large, although smaller than the previous variety. Fruiting is also more modest: on average, you can collect four kilograms per season. Also very hardy; sufficiently resistant to disease and pests.
- Anniversary Michurinsky. By agricultural indicators it is close to both already mentioned varieties. In bloom - white.
- Beshipny VNIVI stands apart. Unlike other varieties, it gives a tall bush, has no thorns, the fruits are small (about two grams), it bears fruit earlier - in early August, and in smaller quantities (a little more than one and a half kilograms). It even blooms in its own way: not with individual flowers, but with inflorescences of four pieces of pink tones.