stolen hips

back from the 'Golden City' , I noticed that some of my aimed pollinated hips has been stolen (would be a case for our Forums Inspector)
...also on the 'Sympathie' (pollinated with 'Rose de Resht'). The other way seems to work, the hip on the 'RdR' is still bright orange.
Thank God 'Bonica' is also still complete. As she is a 'self cleaning' one, I've tested to pollinate only the central bloom of the bunch this year, this seems to work.
Do you have any suggestion to the problem of stolen hips ?

cheers
Bernhard

You can borrow my black dog if you like

What kind of critters do you get over there? I use a small mesh draw string bag over hips so the critters here don't eat them.

I don't know if it was a kind of critter . As the hips has not been ripe I will not assume that they have been eaten by an animal, unless squirrels, mice, rats, martens and newly the enok (Nyctereutes procyonoides, moved from eastern europe) will eat the unripe fruits. Morre likely they have only fallen dawn from the shrubs, have not yet searched.

happy breeding
Bernhard

I believe you may have answered your own riddle [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.], Bernhard have you had wind and if so they might have fallen to earth or do the stems look like they have been chewed, happy hunting in the shrubs.

Bemo those enoks are so cute, but I know people say that of our possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) and they are a real problem for rose growers here.

Well, I hadn't heard of enoks before. I think David Attenborough must have missed the Racoon Dog. Very cute!

....cute , it's an invasive threat and the population is 'controlled' by hunting them ( ca 28.000 in 2006)
they should care of themself..., will propagate more of my 'voodoo child'

wish someone would steal my hips

all together,
can anybody confirm that the central hip of a bunch is more stable than the others ?. Enclosed one of my observations:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

happy breeding
Bernhard

I think it would depend on the variety Bernhard. My multiflora, hybrid musk, and polyantha are cluster flower roses and nearly every flower sets a hip. In other varieties, like 'Altissimo' ( a GREAT seed parent whose seeds are proving difficult to germinate), every flower will develop an enormous hip. On other floribunda type, like 'Lilli Marlene' I noticed something like what you have shown with only one flower in a cluster going on to form hips... I haven't taken any notice of which flower in the cluster it was. 'Bonica' seems to set hips on every flower. 'Nahema' set hips on pretty much every flower.' Some of my David Austin's seemed to kill off all but the strongest hip and develop only the biggest and strongest hip... 'Abraham Darby' was the main culprit for doing this but 'Mary Rose' and 'Pegasus' seemed to do it as well to a lesser extent. I don't know if this is something anyone else has noticed. My 'Abraham Darby' plant is young though so maybe once it is older and more established it could better sustain more hips. Are your roses in pots? Could be that a resource is limiting so the plant cannot sustain too many hips? Mine are all in the ground. Dunno... interesting though...

Simon wrote:... Are your roses in pots? Could be that a resource is limiting so the plant cannot sustain too many hips? .....

the obove pic is from 'Bonica'. As you can see she's not yet free of BS anymore. After setting her in the garden in the spring she got 1'st a PM shock and in the late summer the BS attack. Like you mentioned, it can be that she's not established enough to bear more fruits.
thank God, the cross on her is working

Will keep an eye on it in future , if there is a kind of rule

cheers Bernhard