Roses, in my opinion, are one of Jesus' greatest gifts to the gardener, and humanity. Roses have to be the quintessential flower of the cottage garden, and they also happen to be one of my favorite flowers. As flowers go, they are hard to beat in ease of growing, their lovely appearance, and intoxicating scent. They are also one of the few plants that actually survive under my care!
The bare root roses will soon be littering the garden store shelves here in So. Cal. , so this is the time of year that I need to start planning which types and varieties I will be hunting for. Currently, I have around 11 rose bushes in many, types, varieties, and colors of the rose petal rainbow, but of course, I would like to add some more to my collection. The more fragrant the blossom I can get, the happier I am.
But what is a girl to do with all these blooms other than leave them on the bush, or cut them for flower arrangements, especially in the light of a cottage garden or homesteading mindset? For the cottage gardener, or the suburban homesteader, every plant that is taking up valuable space had better be a vegetal multi-tasker, from root to bloom. And fortunately for me, roses fit that bill nicely. I will be briefly touching on a few possibilities how roses can be used on the suburban homestead. In the future, I will be posting entries that will go into further detail as rose season comes into full bloom! Please stay tuned!
The bare root roses will soon be littering the garden store shelves here in So. Cal. , so this is the time of year that I need to start planning which types and varieties I will be hunting for. Currently, I have around 11 rose bushes in many, types, varieties, and colors of the rose petal rainbow, but of course, I would like to add some more to my collection. The more fragrant the blossom I can get, the happier I am.
But what is a girl to do with all these blooms other than leave them on the bush, or cut them for flower arrangements, especially in the light of a cottage garden or homesteading mindset? For the cottage gardener, or the suburban homesteader, every plant that is taking up valuable space had better be a vegetal multi-tasker, from root to bloom. And fortunately for me, roses fit that bill nicely. I will be briefly touching on a few possibilities how roses can be used on the suburban homestead. In the future, I will be posting entries that will go into further detail as rose season comes into full bloom! Please stay tuned!
Coming Soon....
Roses In The Kitchen
Rose petals have many uses, within the kitchen. The most common way to use roses in the kitchen is to make rose water. This vintage, pre-vanilla, flavoring agent can be easily made at home, just make sure you use roses that have been grown organically - no pesticides. Rose petals can also be chopped up and added directly to any cake, cookie or other baked good, or even tea. One of my favorite teas is Rose Congou. The petals can also be added to sugar to give it an essence of roses! | Rose water can be used where any flavoring agent is required, the sky is the limit. Experiment and come up with your own ways to use rose water. Then there is simple syrup, and maybe even rose butter to experiment with. |
Roses in Beauty
Rose petal sugar scrub can be made easily a home as a substantial cost savings. I will be exploring different recipes and report what I find to be helpful about the process. | Soothing rose petal bath salt is not only pretty to the sense of sight, but also supplies the therapeutic benefits of pain relief, and a calming scent. |
Here's To Your Health
The fresh petals of roses can be steeped for a heavenly rosy colored and flavored tisane (ti'zan), or even dried for a deeper rose flavor tisane and then mixed with other herbs, leaves and flowers, the flavor combinations are endless, and is my kind of aroma therapy!
Of course there is also the old stand by of dried rose petal potpourri stuffed into pretty sachets, that are hidden in lingerie drawers or hung in the closet to ward off bugs while beautifully scenting clothes.
Of course there is also the old stand by of dried rose petal potpourri stuffed into pretty sachets, that are hidden in lingerie drawers or hung in the closet to ward off bugs while beautifully scenting clothes.