Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Rugosa rose is generally rated fire resistant, although one eastern U.S.
plant selector rates it At Risk.
Five of six sources support its use in firewise landscaping. Ohio State University Extension gives it low flammability, the recommended band immediately above very low on its five-point scale. Virginia Cooperative Extension and Virginia Tech also assign it the low band on their three-point scale. FireSmart BC approves rugosa rose as fire resistant while flagging it as needing more research. Taken together, these findings support the fire-resistant classification, but with a clear qualification.
Placement and care are part of two favorable assessments. Utah State University Extension says rugosa and other hedge roses can be firewise when properly used and maintained. Alaska forestry officials say rugosa rose may be used in firewise landscapes if placed and maintained appropriately. The USDA Forest Service and state Firewise programs provide the dissenting result: At Risk, or 3 on a four-point scale running from Firewise at 1 to Not Firewise at 4.
Rugosa rose is a shrub in the rose family that reaches about eight feet at maturity and is suited to full sun with moderate water. It is hardy to USDA zone 5a, introduced in 23 states, and flagged as invasive in two jurisdictions. For homeowners, the sensible reading is favorable but conditional: use its fire-resistant rating alongside the placement, maintenance, and invasive-plant rules that apply locally.
Form
shrub
Mature height
~8 ft
Light
Full sun
Water need
moderate
Rated in
Alaska; British Columbia; Ohio / Midwest; Utah / Intermountain West +2
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Alaska Division of Forestry opens with the wildfire threat to Alaskans and publishes Alaska firewise-landscape examples. FireApproved publishes 58 exact source owners from its 60 taxon entries and holds the taxon-free fern label. State publication scope does not establish suitability for every Alaska climate, site, or home-ignition-zone placement.
Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
Utah State University Extension states that this fact sheet selects examples for Utah landscapes and that they require proper placement and maintenance. FireApproved publishes 83 exact source owners at Utah publication scope. The table is not a site-specific planting clearance.
Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AK, CT, DC, DE, IL, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV.
Native range
Introduced / established
23 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 3b; no upper limit is documented.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
1 legal-list record; the Place chip matches exact scope.
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
2 ecological invasive reports.
Broader regional context
Federal context
Plant-specific legal-list reviews (1)
These source-bound review receipts are separate from ecological invasive reports. A source or plant identity change invalidates a receipt.
ME · Regulated here. Designated regulated in the reviewed Maine Chapter 273 Do Not Sell and Special Concern Lists as of 2026-08-26. Authority: Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; scope: state; as of 2026-08-26.Official reference.Normalized source record.
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Rosa rugosa · exact match.
Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.
Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
Minimum 3b · no upper limit documented · half zone precision · derived containing band
Exact source measurement: -33°F; mapped only to its containing half-zone.
Source taxon: Rosa rugosa · source identifier match.
Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 90914, Temperature, Minimum (°F).
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 2 — 5–10 ft from the structure; maintained lawn or fuel breaks, with easily ignited evergreens avoided [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (mid-scale rating)
Protect Your Home from Wildfire: Shrubs [Alaska DNR brochure sections] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
