Rosa gymnocarpa, bald hip rose, native for full shade.
tiny short lived fragrant flowers.

They smell like cinnamon. Forest-adapted species, unlike R. nutkana and R. pisocarpa which like most roses want sun and fertility.

Is this r. gymnocarpa? I found this at Bloedel and wondered what it is. It sounds reasonable that they'd have a nw native plant growing there, though.

It didn't smell like cinnamon to me, but maybe I just didn't recognize the fragrance so didn't know to label it as that; it was a little pungent but sweet. Thank you both for the comments. Gean

That flower looks a little too big with overlapping petals and the stem looks too thick to be it.
See the link and click on the pics for close ups of the bristly stems etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: bald hip rose

It definitely didn't have the bristly stems. It may be r. pisocarpa. Thank you for the link, plantknitter.

Bloedel plant as shown here has flowers like Nootka rose. Not that I am saying this specimen is this other one but be aware that "native" plantings here may also contain Rosa woodsii, from the intermountain region.

Both R. woodsii and nutkana grow wild in a variety of locations on the Kitsap peninsula, including some quite shady locations. Native habitat for both is woodland verges or semi-open shrublands. I have one growing up and blooming quite high amongst a dense cluster of young Doug firs and WRC......a very shady location until late afternoon.

From a NW native plants database: "Nootka rose may be found in open upland woods or in open shrub wetlands. In areas where both Rosa nutkana and Rosa woodsii occur, the former may be found at higher elevations and often in woods."

Woods rose is consistently an interior species, look at range maps for it. Of 217 records for the species on the Burke Herbarium web site, there is not one for Kitsap County. Plants so-called for Kitsap County are either misidentified, escaped from cultivation (if it ever does that over here) or represent a disjunct population I have not seen mentioned before.

Baldhip rose

"Occurs on very dry to moderately dry, nutrient-medium soils" and is "Common in open-canopy forests on water-shedding sites" where it is "Usually associated with Gaultheria shallon, Kindbergia oregana, and Mahonia nervosa, is "Characteristic of moisture-deficient sites" whereas

Nootka rose

"Occurs on fresh to very moist, nitrogen-rich soils" where it is "Most frequent on floodplains; sporadic in non-forested communities and open-canopy forests on water-shedding sites with fluctuating groundwater tables" and is also "Occasional on sites affected by ocean spray and brackish water"

--Klinka et al, Indicator Plants of Coastal British Columbia (1989, UBC Press, Vancouver)

There's a difference between a plant being at home under the trees and surviving it, just as there are different degrees of shade.

Thanks for the comments. I'm planning to ask at Bloedel what rose is growing there; it is on the bank of the circle pond near a bench. It may well be a nootka per bb's comment that it "occurs on fresh to very moist, nitrogen rich soils."

In this area I'd like to plant, I find both the gaultheria and mahonia. I haven't seen the kindbergia, but just learned what it is so maybe I tripped over it and didn't know. I'd take that as an indicator that the baldhip would do well there, based on bb's comment.

Ann Lovejoy mentions rosa acicularis as doing well in the same areas as the baldhip, areas of "drought and poor soil."

She also mentions as a source of native plants, conservation district offices who sell them in the spring. Have any of you purchased natives like this and do you recommend it? Or other sources? Thanks for all information and for the comments.

If I can find the native nootka or the woods rose, I may try them also, just to see how they do. I'm also curious about the acicularis.

Thank you.