Some of our beach rose bushes (Rosa rugosa) have withstood the severe drought we’ve been suffering from most of the summer, as well as the early influences of September’s cooler weather. They’re still producing delicate, spring-like flowers, such as this, while forming the robust, tomato-like rose hips that we expect in fall.
Those hips are known for containing extraordinarily high concentrations of vitamin C. Many people cook them into vitamin-rich teas, jams and syrups. (The hips first must be scraped out to rid them of the inner seeds that contain tiny hairs that can be irritating.) Overwintering birds eat them for survival; itchy hairs be damned.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 1, 2026.)