GARDEN ROSES: PERFECT NESTING AND HIDING PLACE

Roses, with their beautiful flowers full of pollen, offer not only plenty to insects but also delight birds and hedgehogs. For birds, the dense rose branches with thorns provide the perfect nesting and hiding place. Hedgehogs like to forage sheltered under the shrubs. And you can enjoy a lively garden full of fragrance and colour.

Sheltered nests

The thorns on rose branches form a natural barrier that protects animals from predators. Climbing roses in particular are a favourite among many birds as a place to stay or to build their nests. Tits and other insect-eating birds love to visit roses to snack on aphids from the twigs and leaves. Dense thorny rose bushes provide hedgehogs with a safe sheltered place to curl up and rest. Not without reason did people in the past plant roses in dense plantings around settlements, keeping unwanted visitors at bay.

Rose hips

Botanical roses and many cultivated roses form rose hips after flowering. They ripen in late summer and autumn. For birds such as blackbirds, thrushes and redwings, they are a welcome vitamin-rich food source to replenish fat reserves for winter. Goldfinches and other seed-eaters pick the seeds from the hips. The tip is therefore not to cut off all the spent flowers later in the year.

Did you know…

• Botanically speaking, roses don’t have thorns but prickles?
• That the name of the famous Brothers Grimm fairy tale should actually be ‘Little Prickle Rose’?
• There are also roses with fewer or even no prickles at all? Convenient for areas with lots of passage.
• Rose hips come in many different shapes and colours? From round to elongated and from blue-green, yellow, orange and red to purple.

Discover more inspiration and information at www.roses4gardens.com.