Source of food for songbirds: Wild roses in the garden attract the animals

Created: 05/08/2022, 15:00

By: Ines Alms

Native wild roses are a welcome source of food for songbirds.

With their rose hips and as a pasture for insects, you will attract the birdies to your garden.

Berlin – Many birds could sing you a song about it: the more rose hips, the better.

When it comes to songbird favorite food sources, native wild roses are high on the popularity chart.

Unlike overgrown, double roses, they provide plenty of rose hips and attract insects.

So if you enrich your garden with these fragrant plants, you can enjoy them as much as the birdies.

Songbirds love wild roses as a source of food: You can use this to attract the animals to your garden

The vinegar rose (Rosa gallica) is a very fragrant species of wild rose.

(Iconic image) © imagebroker/Imago

As the Bund Naturschutz ("NABU") reports, wild roses, especially in hedge form, are the place-to-be for songbirds.

They form numerous rose hips and like other insect-friendly roses, they attract many butterflies and bees with their nectar, which in turn serve as a source of food for the birds.

The birds also like to retreat there to breed and to protect themselves from predators.

These are the most popular wild roses for garden birds (and insects):

• Vinegar Rose (Rosa gallica) 

• Burnet rose (Rosa pimpinellifolia)

• Creeping burnet rose (Rosa pimpinellifolia repens) 

• Creeping Rose (Rosa arvensis) 

• Apple rose (Rosa villosa)

• Cinnamon rose (Rosa majalis)

• Wine rose (Rosa rubiginosa)

• Felt rose (Rosa tomentosa)

• Red-Leaf Rose (Rosa glauca)

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You can get these roses, for example, in regional tree nurseries that grow native trees.

Sometimes you will also find what you are looking for at farmers' markets or with neighborhood initiatives or, of course, on the Internet. 

Wild roses are less susceptible to powdery mildew and aphids

Other advantages of wild roses in your garden: They are less susceptible to diseases such as rose rust and downy and powdery mildew.

They are also less affected by pests such as aphids.

They are also more robust in prolonged drought, an interesting aspect, especially with the increasing lack of rain.

Other ways to attract birds to the garden include nesting boxes, water troughs, and tree stumps or other vantage points.

You will also help the birds if you grow certain plants and leave their seed heads in the fall and winter.