Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

There are four native roses that are listed in the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Native Plant Database as growing in Washington State. Moist, well-drained soil will probably be a better site for these roses than the dry, rocky soil.

The native roses are...

Rosa gymnocarpa (dwarf rose) From wikipedia, this shrub rose grows up to 2 m (6 ft) tall. The fragrant flowers are flat and open-faced with five petals in most any shade of pink to almost lavender. Its fruit is a red rose hip containing hard tan achenes that contain the seeds. The sepals fall away from the hip earlier than in other species of rose, hence the name baldhip rose.

Rosa nutkana (Nootka rose)  Nootka rose is a 2-10 ft., prickly to nearly unarmed, wild rose with extraordinarily large, solitary (sometimes 2-3 in a cluster), pink flowers at branch ends. The flowers, which can be up to 3 1/2 in. across, are followed by big, purplish, pear-shaped hips. The light-green leaves are pinnately compound. A thorny shrub with pale pink flowers, the largest (often only) thorns in pairs near leaf stalks.

Rosa pisocarpa (cluster rose) From wikipedia, cluster rose is native to western North America from British Columbia to northern California, where it generally grows in moist habitats. It is a shrub sometimes forming a thicket, and growing up to 2.5 meters tall. The stems can be dark red or blackish and are often studded with straight, paired prickles at nodes. The leaves are each made up of several toothed oval leaflets, the terminal leaflet up to 4 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a cyme of up to 10 flowers with pink petals each up to 2 centimeters in length. The fruit is a rose hip about a centimeter wide. The hips are pear- or egg-shaped and borne in clusters, and are decorative in fall and early winter, when they are red or reddish-purple and contrast with yellow foliage. Fall foliage can be yellow or dark red. R. pisocarpa is used in wetland restorations and in native plant landscaping. Its thorny thickets and numerous, persistent hips provide shelter and food for birds and other small wildlife. Deer browse new stems and foliage

Rosa woodsii (Woods' rose) The Wood rose is a much-branched, deciduous shrub, up to 5 ft. tall, often growing in dense thickets. Stems are red and prickled on their lower portions, though not as well-armed as other wild roses. Leaves are pinnately-compound with five to nine leaflets. Pink, five-petalled flowers, 2 in. across, are followed by many orange-red hips. This is a variable species, with a number of varieties occurring throughout the western states.