Snowberries and Roses in the Backyard Forest – Backyard Forest Restoration

As the leaves begin to turn, the hard, waxy fruits of fall catch my eye, including the bright red rosehips and the contrasting white snowberries.

Brushy Edge with Common Snowberry and Nootka Roses

I’m thinking about fall planting, too. I’ve already installed two Baldhip roses in a shady nook under the canopy and have plenty of Common snowberry. I wish I could plant either a Nootka or Clustered rose with the snowberry, but I don’t really have enough space to accommodate their aggressive spreading. But you might.

Baldhip rose (Rosa gymnocarpa)

“Well behaved and even shy,” the shade-loving Baldhip rose can easily be overlooked in the deep woods, growing amidst other plants, displaying its modest flowers only briefly, and producing but a few small hips.

It’s called “Baldhip” because the sepals drop off the ripening fruit.

The Baldhip rose can be identified by its numerous soft, bristly, straight prickles.

Look closely for the prickly stem on this Baldhip rose growing with Salal.

Nootka rose (Rosa nutkana) and Clustered rose (Rosa pisocarpa)

The more aggressive cousins of the Baldhip, the Nootka and Clustered roses, take full advantage of direct sunlight and spread via rhizomes to form dense thickets over six feet high.

If you have enough space, Nootka and Clustered roses can be an excellent option for wide brushy edges that deter weeds and benefit wildlife.

I agree with Dana Kelley Bressette that the Clustered rose is very difficult to distinguish from the Nootka. Their rosehips can offer clues.

The hips on the Nootka rose tend to grow at the ends of twigs.

The hips on the Clustered rose are usually in groups of three or more.

Prickles along the stems of both the Nootka and Cluster rose are more variable and sporadic than those of the Baldhip.

Prickles on both the Nootka and Clustered rose are sharp, especially the pair that forms at the base of leaf stipules.

Invasive Roses

There are at least three non-native roses that are invasive in Western Washington, the Dog rose (Rosa canina), Sweetbriar rose (Rosa rubiginosa), and Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora). Turner and Gray state that “with its size, prickles, and suckering, Dog rose can be a monster when established” (here, page 82).

“A rule of thumb for differentiating invasive and native roses is this: if the rose has thorns that curve down, it is invasive. If the thorns are straight, it is native.”

Common snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)

The Common snowberry grows in sun or partial shade, tolerates drought and poor soil, transplants easily, and spreads rapidly.

With it’s lingering white berries, the Common snowberry is easy to identify in the fall and winter.

In our region, the only other common tree or shrub with white fruit that I’m aware of is the Red Osier dogwood pictured above.

Before it flowers in the spring, Common snowberry can be difficult to identify, since it’s leaves can be variable.

The flowers of the Common snowberry are smaller than the fruit.

Obtaining Roses and Snowberries for the Backyard Forest

I would not try to salvage Nootka or Clustered roses that may have germinated from seed. For one thing, it’s not necessarily easy to distinguish them from invasive roses. Furthermore, they hybridize with each other. and probably with at least some of the invasive roses.

To ensure that you install only native roses, I would advocate starting with plants purchased from a reputable native plant nursery. Ideally, their plants would have been propagated from rhizome or stem cuttings to ensure species integrity. After your roses have become established, you can multiply them the same way or simply transplant suckers.

The Clustered rose can be just the right choice for a poorly-drained forest edge since it is by nature a “riparian species that does well in moist, even water-logged soils.”

I would try the Nootka rose in slightly drier spots, but to prevent hybrids, I would not plant both species anywhere near each other.

Common snowberry paired with either the Nootka or the Clustered rose grow together nicely.

In contrast to the roses, I think the Common snowberry is a safe salvage plant, because it is the only species of its genus that commonly grows wild in the Puget Lowlands.