Roses are unquestionably the most elite of flowers and considered as the Queen of Flowers with good reason.

Ancient fossils show that the rose has existed since prehistoric times over 35,000,000 years. Evidence has been found in pictures of the rose found from ancient Crete dating back to the 16^th century BC and earlier in coinage from the Island of Rhodes when it was used on its official coinage.

The life of a rose bush can be extremely long. There are many that were planted by settlers in earliest times and that survive for over a hundred years. Others such as Glastonbury Cathedral by legend claim an age dating far longer.  It is no wonder that the oil of rose is a trusted rejuvenator.

Throughout history roses have been grown for ornamental value. Many people have developed excessive fondness for this flower, the most well documented perhaps being the Roman Emperor Nero who spent lavishly to ensure an endless supply of roses to satisfy his cravings for rose petal mattresses and pillows, rose perfume, rose scented finger bowls, petals in his food and many other more extravagant uses.

Above all, the rose is a universal symbol of beauty, love and harmony – qualities that are associated with the influence of the planet Venus and the human expressions of these properties. The different colours represent the different expressions with red being the most intense and passionate, yellow representing the more generalized, less personal emotions and white being the purest, quality of spiritual love and ideals.  Roses take a pride of place in artwork and artistic design.

We can thank the Empress Josephine for accumulating hundreds of species from all over the world in her garden, with many surviving to allow their involvement in modern rose breeding. Various groups of rose types are recognized today.

Rose species and varieties include habits of climbing, scrambling, bush, or even ground cover with modern rose breeders claiming thousands of  new creations, colours and forms. However it is the old species that possess the most suitable perfumed oil content for making essential oil of rose or attar of rose, that is then broken down for its various commercial products and uses.  The main species cultivated for this purpose are Rosa gallica, R. centifolia, R. damascena and R. muscatta.

As1000 kilos of roses are required to produce 520 gms of essential rose oil, it is no wonder that it is renowned as the most expensive of the natural perfumed oils with a price that is prohibitive for the average person. Adulterants are used including Guaiac Wood oil from Bulneesia sarmienti and we are aware that most of us must compromise and settle for a good quality synthetic rose oil.

But we can drink rose hip tea, flavour our food with rose essences, crystallise rose petals as confection, include rose petals in our salads, use rose perfume in personal toilet, massage good quality synthetic rose oil into our bodies for healing through aromatherapy, burn it in our incense, and most importantly, best nourish our brain and our minds by inhaling the pure perfume directly from the garden flower.

    Rosa gallica

 

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 3:06 pm and is filed under essential oils. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.