The Roses of Love

Baronne Prévost hobnobs with the geraniums

I'm a shameless rose lover.   

I admit it!  My garden is full of these beauties, many of which are blooming now, nodding their pretty heads in the winds that blow down from the mountain passes.  The fine Gallicas, lovely old Damasks, perfumed, heady Bourbons,  Floribundas, Polyanthas and others, are all as fragrant and lovely as can be.

 

Can you tell I’m an antique rose aficionado?  These hardy flowers flourish in my garden with an absolute minimum of fuss.    

I minimally prune and never spray, yet they bloom their beautiful scented hearts out for me year after year, some of them virtually all year long  (yes, I live in USDA zone: Paradise). 

Roses with bird, mural detail, 1st Century, Pompeii

Their 19^th century, aristocratic names also charm me to pieces.  I can easily imagine a liveried head butler standing in my garden, announcing each member of the party with a suitably royal flourish:  Excellenz von Schubert!  Mrs. R.M. Finch!   Mevrouw Nathalie Nypels!  Archduke Charles!  Baronne Prévost!  Honestly, I’d love them for their names alone.

Here is my favorite source for old garden roses.  I have always been thrilled with the quality of the Antique Rose Emporium's offerings!  They ship in large,
2-gallon containers, and every rose I've
ever received from them has arrived in vigorous good health.

 

Redouté's Rosa centifolia foliacea

I also love their wilder sisters.  Wild roses make
their home in a wide range of habitats, from pond-side (where the red-wing blackbirds love to sing) and swamp to very dry terrains.  Wild roses are simple flowers, usually 5-petaled. Their brambly thickets provide safe perches and virtually impenetrable shelter for many small birds and animals, and their colorful hips provide food for woodland dwellers during the winter.

Cemetery roses are especially poignant; they all have stories to tell.  These beauties were planted with love, and often in loss and sorrow, for the ongoing remembrance of dear ones who had passed.  Seen today, it is somewhat haunting to realize that many were planted by people long since gone themselves - yet the roses bloom on, paying fragrant tribute to the dead.

Cultivated roses have a long and venerable history.  Sumerian records, written some 3000 years ago, describe garden roses.  China, the Middle East, India and Europe all offer ancient records detailing rose horticulture and trade.  

Mrs. R.M. Finch in all her showgirl finery

The oldest of the cultivated garden roses is Rosa gallica officinalis, the Apothecary Rose.  In the West, this rose was carefully tended in monastery and convent gardens, and carried to the New World.  It has always been prized not just for it’s beauty, but for it’s gentle medicine, as well.

Roses bring joy, kindness, and peace.  They lighten strain and depression, heal broken hearts, and soothe pain. They enhance beauty in all ways, and help to awaken the heart!  They intoxicate with their perfume, and are universally recognized as signifying romantic love.

Roses were held sacred to Aphrodite and to Venus.  The beautiful Erzulie Freda loves roses as well.  Additionally, they are deeply linked to the Virgin Mary, hence the rosary!  Astrologers believe they are governed by the planet Venus.  In every way, roses are truly flowers of the heart!

Here at Hoodoo Roots, I carefully dry the beautiful rose petals from my garden for use in my Spiritual Supplies.  The deep fragrant pinks, dreamy pale apricots, pure ethereal whites, cheerful yellows, pale ballet-pinks and ivories, and deep, emotional ruby red petals all have their personality and purpose.  Many of my Love and Sex formulas are made with these petals, as are many of the formulas in the Blessings and Spiritual Help, Healing, Family and Children, and Relationships Categories.

Bring flowers, including roses, to those who are ill, for their spirits will be lifted and thus their recovery strengthened.  Roses in the home grace and bless it’s inhabitants.  And what woman isn’t wowed by a bouquet of gorgeous roses?  You simply can’t go wrong!

The deliriously fragrant Madam Isaac Periere

Have you ever had Rose Jam?

This is a delightful treat, incorporating the beauty and fragrance of roses with sugary sweetness.  It is easy to make, too.  The important thing is to source your fresh roses very carefully – never, ever use roses which have been sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals, and do not harvest roses which grow close to roads or which may be affected by agricultural chemicals in runoff water. 

I favor those roses with a deep fragrance (Rosa damascena, or many of the Bourbons, for instance), for this adds to the delight of this magical concoction.  Roses all have a different scent – some are fresh and lemony, with a tea-note; others may have a raspberry scent, or smell faintly of apples; some are shy and sweetly tender; others lush and intoxicating.   

An old American Beauty blooming in the garden

Pick the roses on a sunny morning after the dew has lifted, but before the sun has become too intense.  If you wait too long, you will sacrifice fragrance, for roses are richest in scent early in the day.  You can use your organic garden roses, or if you prefer, wild roses.  Their color is a factor as well – your jam will be tinted by whatever rosy hue you select.   

SWEETS FOR THE SWEET 

A Simple Recipe

Some traditional recipes are extremely simple, calling for no more than a few handfuls of fresh red rose petals and a couple of cups of sugar.   Finely grind these together in a mortar into a beautiful, fragrant paste, and enjoy!

Beautiful Rose Jam

Another recipe I like specifies using just 1 cup of petals to 2.5 cups of white granulated sugar.  Some folks first cut the white bases off of each petal, so that only satiny color remains. 

          Into a blender place:

• 1 cup fresh fragrant rose petals,
• ¾ cup of water,
• the juice of one fresh lemon, strained, with seeds removed.

• Blend well.

• Slowly add 2.5 cups of sugar, a bit at a time, until thoroughly mixed.

• Separately, place another ¾ cup of water in a pot.
• And add one box of pectin (I have used Kraft's Sure Jell).






• Bring to a full rolling boil.  Boil at that level for one minute.

• Pour pectin liquid into your blender (where your rose concoction still is)
• Blend very well.  If you wish, you may blend in a drop of pure rose otto.  Be sure you have bonafide, true rose otto - a synthetic dupe will never do.  If you aren't sure, ask yourself how much you paid for it.  True rose otto is liquid gold.  It commands a royal ransom, as befits the Queen of the Flowers!

• Pour into small sterilized canning jars.  It fully sets up in a few hours. 
• Once set, keep refrigerated, and consume within one month. 
• Believe me, that will not be hard!  Serve with love to those you love!
  
  

This rose jam is so full of heart, sweetness, and pure love that it could easily be incorporated into healing or love spells.  If you think on this strongly while preparing your jam, you will truly have an enchanted condiment.

An inventive conjurer could go very far with this!  Mind the chemistry of the pectin jelling, but feel free to incorporate a very tiny trace of the one you love, or of yourself.  Sing a song under your breath to the jam as you prepare it, or simply state clearly what it's purpose is.   Pour into it your intense focus and desire.  Or not!  It is delightful and magical all on it's own, pleasing and charming all tasters.  Surely this is the preferred food of the fairies!  Try it and see what happens!

Another fragrant cabbage rose gracing the garden

As always, when harvesting, you will obtain the best results if you request the permission of the plant first.  Communicate exactly what your need is.  Listen to the response.  If you feel you’ve been given a green light, go ahead!  If not, don’t push matters.  Move on.

Do not harvest without appreciation.  Do not harvest more than you need.  Never take too much from any one plant.  This is especially critical with plants which are harvested for their subtler, spiritual qualities.

Never throw used plant matter of this sort into the trash, for doing so dishonors the plant, and your future success with it may very well be compromised.  Always compost.  If you live in the city, take it with you to the park, and leave it under a bush or tree.

When harvesting, it is polite to leave some sort of offering, as well.  This may very well help with future relations with this plant, no matter where you may encounter it.  A bit of tobacco is a famous offering, but it should not be offered to members of it’s own family, the nightshades.

Wishing you rosy blessings,                           

Dara Anzlowar

The first full moon of summer

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