Rugosa Rose, Beach Tomato, Sea Tomato       RO-za ru-GO-sa

• Deciduous shrub, 4-6 ft (1.2-1.6 m), stout upright stems, dense rounded outline.  Leaves alternate, compound (odd-pinnate), 5-9 leaflets, elliptic to elliptic-obovate, 2.5-2 cm long, serrate, wrinkled surface (rugose), dark green in summer and bronze to orange-red in fall.  Flowers perfect, rose-purple to white, 6-9 cm wide, short stalk, fragrant.  Fruit a "hip", 2.5 cm diam., lustrous brick red.
• Sun, very pest resistant, tough and hardy, easy to grow, the most trouble free rose, used in difficult sites, e.g. banks, cuts, fills, sandy soils.  Can withstand ocean salt spray.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 2       Native to northern China, Korea, Japan; naturalized in northern, western and central Europe, has been seen 100 miles from Arctic Circle in Siberia.
• There are many selections of R. rugosa and rugosa hybrids, some of the more popular ones includs:
  • ‘Alboplena’  -  double white
  • ‘Belle Poitevine’  -  semi-double, light mauve-pink
  • ‘Blanc Double de Coubert’  -  semi-double to double, white
  • ‘Frau Dagmar Hastrup’  -  single pink
  • ‘Hansa’  -  double, purple-red
  • ‘Will Alderman’  -  double, pink
• Hips used commercially, the source of "rose hips" for tea, etc.
• rugose: wrinkled, a reference to the leaf surface, hence one of the common names, Rugosa Rose.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: south end of parking lot behind Richardson Hall.