Pasture Rose
Rosa carolina
A tough, low native rose for dry slopes and lean soil. Single pink summer blooms open to native bees, and red hips feed birds through winter.
Typically 1 quart–3 gal · $17–$85 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Aug 138 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Aug 148 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Aug 158 AM – 2 PM
Toughest native rose for dry slopes. fragrant pink blooms, persistent winter hips, and erosion-stopping ground cover.
Pasture rose is the low-growing, tough native rose of dry meadows, rocky slopes, and open roadsides. It stays small, two to four feet, and spreads by suckering to form colonies that stabilize slopes and provide dense nesting cover. The single pink flowers in summer are everything a rose should be: clean, simple, lightly fragrant, and fully open to the native bees that can't get into doubled hybrid varieties. The red hips that follow in fall are small but persistent, and birds take them through winter and early spring when other food sources have been depleted. It tolerates dry, lean, and sandy soil where most native shrubs would struggle. This is the rose for the dry slope, the hot exposed bank, the gravel edge, not the border that gets watered and fertilized, but the place that has to fend for itself.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown pasture rose propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
Plant pasture rose instead of Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) on dry banks. Same job in the garden, without the spread.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Average
- Mature size
- 2–4 ft · 36–72 in wide
- Bloom time
- Summer
- Bloom color
- Pink
- USDA zones
- 4–9
- Family
- Rosaceae
- Native range
- Eastern and central North America from Nova Scotia to Florida, west to Nebraska
Care notes for pasture rose.
Full sun in dry, well-drained to average soil. Tolerates poor, sandy, and rocky conditions. Drought tolerant once established. don't overwater or fertilize. Spreads by root suckers; remove if needed or let it colonize naturally. Prune old canes to the ground in late winter for the most productive flowering growth.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside pasture rose.
Or skip the guesswork.
Curated packages bundle complementary species for an instant habitat. One reservation, one pickup day, a printed layout map.
Short on Space Package
For gardeners who have an abundance of passion but are short on space, this package features tidy, upright, clump-forming natives that behave and function well in small spaces.
Shade Bed Package
Ferns, sedges, and woodland natives that thrive under existing trees.
Birder’s Paradise Package
For the avid bird watchers and budding ornithologists in our community, the Birder’s Paradise Package consists of species that Hill House Nursery staff and longtime native plant advocates such as Doug Tallamy consider ‘premier bird garden plants’.