Sweet Briar / Eglantine Hedging Plants

Rosa Rubiginosa Hedging Plants

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Rosa rubiginosa, Eglantine Rose, is an excellent country hedging plant. It is suitable for any soil with decent drainage.
Rosa rubiginosa is good for hedges up to about 3 metres high.

See our selection of native hedging plants or view our full range of hedging.

Rosa rubiginosa hedge plants are only delivered bareroot, during winter (Nov-March).

All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Spacing a Rosa rubiginosa hedge:
Plant at 3 plants per metre, 33cm apart.
You can also plant at 5 plants per metre in a staggered double row, with 33 cm between each plant along the row and 40cm between the rows.

General description of Rosa rubiginosa plants:

The Eglantine or Sweet Briar Rose is a vigorous country hedging rose that makes an impenetrable thicket of thorny stems. It has apple scented leaves that smell especially good after rain. It produces sprays of fragrant, delicate, variably pink flowers for about 3 months in the summer. These ripen into deep orange hips that stay on the branches well into winter. Sweet Briar makes a good, rough and ready hedge all itself and also looks great in a mixed hedge with hawthorn or blackthorn.

History & uses of Eglantine Rose:

You may also see this rose listed as Rosa eglanteria.

Growing Rosa rubiginosa plants:
These wild roses will grow on most well drained soils, including by the coast and on chalky soil. They are shade tolerant, but won't flower much if they don't get enough sun.
Sweet briar is a very vigorous rose, so we suggest using for hedges about 3 metres tall, which is the height that your plants want to be.

Prepare your site before planting:
Native hedge plants like Rosa rubiginosa are very tough. The only essential preparation is to kill the weeds in a strip a metre wide along the planting site: improving the soil should not be necessary. If your soil is exceptionally poor and dry, then digging in some well rotted manure and/or compost is worthwhile.

Watch our video on how to plant a country hedge for full details.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Hedge Planting Accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass.
You can buy a hedge planting pack with sheets of mulch fabric and pegs to hold it down.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.

After Care

After you have planted your Rosa rubiginosa hedge, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather. You will also need to weed around the plants. Watering should be thorough, so the ground is soaked. Let the soil almost dry out before watering again. Watering & weeding will be necessary for at least a year after planting.

Trimming Country hedge plants:
Rosa rubiginosa is a vigorous, native hedging plant that benefits from being cut back hard right after planting, as shown in the country hedge planting video. In the following years, your young hedge should be trimmed lightly once in winter, until it is mature. When it is fully grown, you can clip it at anytime. Late winter is ideal.

Special notes on caring for Rosa rubiginosa hedges:
Rosa rubiginosa is a very tough hedge plant that shouldn't need special attention once it has established. If you didn't use a mulch fabric, it is beneficial to mulch around the base of the hedge each year.

Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood can be pruned off as soon as it appears.
Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there is any sign of disease.
Burn or dispose of any diseased material, do not compost it.