A rose is a woody shrub that will grow for many years. Most roses are deciduous, meaning they shed their leaves before winter and regrow them in spring.

There are more than a hundred different wild species, which grow all over the world, but are most varied in Asia. It is one of the plants that has been most widely bred and there are now thousands of varieties of cultivated rose.

The rose is naturally a climbing plant, with large, sweetly-scented flowers, and thorns (that botanists call prickles) on its stems. The curved thorns are not so much for protection, as hooks to help it to climb over other plants and hang on. Its leaves are long and have jagged edges.

The scent of the rose is to attract insects to collect and share the pollen that the flower produces. When the flower has been pollinated, fruit grows behind the petals. The petals, having does the job of attracting insects, then wither and fall away. The fruit grows with its seeds inside. The fruit of a rose is a berry, known as a rose hip. It is usually bright red.

Rose hips are very rich in vitamin C. The hips are eaten by fruit-eating birds which then spread the seeds in their droppings, all covered with fertiliser.