Daniel J. Hinkley

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You are here: Home / Essays / A Rose by Any Other Name

A Rose by Any Other Name

May 28, 2012 By Daniel J. Hinkley

In the autumn of 1996, while approaching Tianchi Lake, at relatively high elevations of the Zhongdien Plateau in NW Yunnan Province, I collected the hips from a tall, commonly occurring species of rose. The stems, rising to nearly 3m in height, were heavily armed in broad thorns to 2.5cm that had bleached on old wood to ivorine.

  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410
  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410
  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410
  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410
  • Rosa sweginzowii DJHC 410

What caught my eye and prompted the seed collection, however, were the crops of hips that varied in color significantly from one specimen to another. My collection under the number DJHC 410, came from an individual with large white fruit blushed with pink. It has settled down into our garden at Windcliff and continues to impress each year during its height of blossom, from May through most of June. I did not capture the white hip genetics in the seedling that I ultimately planted although its fruit are paler than most would associate with the genus at large. Its identity has been recently confirmed as Rosa sweginzowii var. macrocarpa.

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Daniel J. Hinkley

Teacher, writer, lecturer, consultant, nurseryman, naturalist, gardener.
Above all, he is committed to solid and sustainable horticultural practices, above average garden plants, landscapes of distinction and raising the collective awareness of the diversity of plant life on Earth as well as the magic and mysteries of our natural world. Learn more…

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