Do you enjoy growing roses (Rosa spp.)? Have you ever wished to create Aromatherapeutic products from your rose petals? Have you noticed your rose plant fails to produce hips in fall? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, I encourage you to join me on a learning experience concerning growing roses specifically for their healing and helpful properties.
What many fail to understand is that the Hybrid Tea roses which are frequently sold in garden supply stores and likely found in your garden, is far from its fragrant ancestors. Ancestors that are still today being use for essential oil productions, perfumes and potpourri. Hybrid roses were created for their large, showy nature and array of colors. They many times do not produce hips because they are unable to pollinate themselves and thus must only be propagated via cuttings or asexual methods. The hips of the rose many times contain extremely beneficial components including vitamin C. They can be used to produce an infused oil or tea.
Like many, you are likely wondering what type of roses you should purchase in order to obtain remedies for Aromatherapy and herbalism. The broad name for such roses is OGR (Old Garden Roses), Antique Roses and/or Heritage Roses. All of these stand for roses grown prior to the 20th century. Many of these roses, such as the Damask and Apothecary rose are extremely old and produce very fragrant flowers with a true attar scent. These roses are usually found in specialized catalogs or on an ever growing number of websites on the net. In some locations, especially CA USA there are large nurseries open to the public, in which you can actually sample the roses scent first hand. If you live on the East Coast, you can visit the NY Botanical Gardens for a nice display of OGR's.
The very nice part about OGR's is they are much more hardy compared to their hybridized offspring. They can withstand the cold and the heat to extremes. In addition they are many times very resistant to black spot, rust and powdery mildew. Some even note that gardeners should not use an oil product on some OGR, yet they do not contract black spot. Of course it is important to find roses that are suited to your climate and conditions. It is also important to gage the amount of sunlight your yard gets each day. Roses love full sun for at least 6 hours. This will also help you to project how many roses you can grow based on room. Growing a therapeutic rose garden is not hard, especially if you plan early and do your homework well in advance of buying that first fragrant plant.
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