What color are they? If they are either orange or red I would pick them. If the stems right under the hip are yellow, definitely pick them because they are ready to fall off and the squirrels and birds will get them before you do.

What do hips look like? Does anyone have a picture?

aggie, for you:

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:306418}}

I couldn't get that link to work. Maybe this one will.

http://www.rosefog.us/Resources/hipbadprickles/Hips.html

From some rugosa hip collecting I did three years ago, I found that taking them when they are red orange and air drying (hot sunlight, with air flow) worked well. Leaving them on the bushes just led to shriveled up problems with fungal additives.
I can get two to three harvests a year. Depending on how late fall persists, You should get two, at least.
(If you get lots of really fat hips with lots of meat, they make a good rose jam. )

Thanks for the links! Why haven't my roses ever produced hips? What do the roses use hips for, and what can we do with them?

The hips are the seed pods. You can harvest those pods when they ripen, cut them open and find rose seeds. If the rose is a hybrid, you'll get some unknown rose, it will probably not look like the parent rose that the hips came from. Only with species roses do you get new plants from seeds that are true to the variety.

Also, if you have heard of rose hip tea or rose hip jelly, these are the hips that they are talking about. Some roses produce better tasting hips than others.

A lot of modern hybrids don't set hips. They dry up before maturing.

ksammie,

What types of rugosas do you have? Mine never set hips!

Teresa