If you put that title in the 'search box' down below you will get a ton of posts. I went ahead and did the search and got 200 hits. It won't let me post the link. Don't know why.

The way I do it is to just put the seeds in a petri dish with seed starting soil and see what happens. I wait till spring to pick the rose hips to let them go through a natural cycle of cold and warm days.

I have had one sprout from Orange 'n Lemons seed that just got it's second set of leaves. It took 10 days to sprout. I have had it take as long as 3 months. You have to be patient.
Good luck.
Clare

Banksiae and some other species can take up to two years to germinate. That's why I'm hoping the one which took only four months to come up may be a hybrid. Kim

Well i tried the search under the search engine, but i think my computers messed up so it's not pulling anything up. I just remember a man giving us a tutorial on how to germinate them by freezing and then he used some kind of plumbers liquid to eat the mantle of the seeds and then they rooted quickly. He did this with darlows enigma which is the one that i want to try it on. just wondered if he was still around.

You got me interested so did a Google search and found this. He used undiluted septic tank treatment. He came to the conclusion that it didn't work.
Clare

I haven't seen any studies on the composition of the outer coat of rose achenes. I have seen studies on the composition of strawberry achenes, and strawberries are also members of the rose family (Rosaceae). The outer coat of strawberry achenes consists almost entirely of lignin with a very small amount of pectin and protein. No cellulose was detected. That means that enzymes that attack cellulose would be expected to have no effect on strawberry achenes.

Fresh rose achenes have the hard waxy look of something made of lignin. They don't look like something made of cellulose or protein. Based on a recommendation that septic tank treatments increase rose achene germination, I tried soaking some rose achenes in an undiluted septic tank treatment that contained enzymes that break down paper (cellulose) and other organic materials. I examined them under magnification before soaking, after one week of soaking, and after four weeks of soaking, and saw no difference in the exterior of the achenes. I then planted the achenes. There was no difference in germination between treated and untreated achenes. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet about stimulating rose achene germination.

I think that it would be well worth trying a ligninase (enzyme that degrades lignin) on rose achenes, but I haven't found a commercial source for it.

Interestingly, the classic sources of ligninases are the white rot fungi like Phanerochaete chrysosporium. These fungi are typically found on rotting wood, and may be the same white fungi that some of us have seen on rose achenes that seems to stimulate their germination.
Jim Turner

Here is a link that might be useful: pectinase and other enzymes