NOW is the time to start looking for the flowers of the dog rose, which will soon become dominant in our hedgerows.

The word 'dog' comes from the old English and simply means common. Thus we have dog violet and dog daisy, which are also common in the countryside of East Lancashire.

The 'dog' or 'wild' rose was also once known as the sweet briar and it does indeed have a pleasant aroma. Over hundreds of years wild roses have been developed into new varieties. This of course includes the red rose of Lancashire.

There is another possible explanation of the name of the dog rose. It dates back to Roman times and the historian Pliny described a soldier suffering from hydrophobia after being bitten by a dog. The roots of the rose were boiled into an ointment which cured the soldier -- hence dog rose.

I still prefer the "common" explanation for the name of the dog rose and the more common it is in our hedgerows the better I like it.

I also like collecting old Lancashire names for our flowers. In East Lancashire this rose was also called nips, nippernails, cow itches hip rose and rose briar.