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Articles Archive Index
Issue 7
Ready for Roses
by Kylie Loynd
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Based on a conversation with RavenCroft Garden's Director, Sally King, CCH.
 Plants of the heart, silky and fragrant, roses have been a symbol of love throughout the ages, ever-ready to offer their healing gifts. You can apply them using a variety of herbal remedies or simply draw in their sweet scent. On days when my heart takes a hit, such a graceful ally is worth keeping on hand.
Rosa Rugosa is of the family Rosaceae, which also includes ladies' mantle, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, sweet briar and hawthorn. I think of roses as being fragile and finicky, but Sally tells me that this rose — her favorite one for food and medicine — isn't fussy at all. In fact, it's easy to grow, spreading readily on runners in sunny, open areas. Commonly sold at garden stores, you can find Rugosa Rose alongside highways and in hedgerows.
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Rich Rewards: Roses are a helpful tonic for the whole body and particularly good for the heart. Their fruit, called a rosehip, is high in vitamins C, E and B complex, as well as carotenes and selenium; good brain-food, it helps with focus, attention and concentration. Roses are renowned for strengthening the entire reproductive system. Herbalist Gail Faith Edwards also suggests applying rose petals directly to cover and protect wounds, as they are antiseptic, antibacterial and antiviral. My girls are going to be thrilled with "rose petal bandages"... Cooling and astringent, an infusion of rose (see below) makes a soothing wash for eyes or for your face when it's oily or irritated. Skin-nourishing and heart-lifting, try adding rose to your bath in an infusion or in a little satchel full of dried or fresh petals.
Attention Deficit: Sally speculates about an intriguing alternative to attention deficit medication: Imagine a field full of those oft-maligned, busy young people, who've been given empty baskets and the goal of filling them with rose petals. Noticing how her own daughter, Emily, spontaneously bursts into song while picking roses and how the energy of her herbal apprentices lifts during a petal harvest, Sally muses that a day spent with roses is a "medical option" worth exploring.
Heavenly Harvest: The Rugosa Rose is a prolific plant. New buds will continue to bloom as long as you keep picking the petals — at RavenCroft it's a 2 - 3 -month harvest. Use the petals fresh for teas or baths or dry them thoroughly to enjoy throughout the winter.
Fantastic Fruit: Whether or not you harvest the petals, the heart of the flower bud will transform into a rosehip. Try fresh rosehips infused in honey (see below). Dried and cracked, their nutrition is easily absorbed in a tea or infusion. They're a bit sour-tasting at first but steeping them longer allows their sweet flavor to erupt. They are also great mixed with other healing herbs.
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Rose Infusion: Add 1 ounce of dried rose petals to a 1-quart canning jar. Fill the jar with boiling water. Let sit for 2 hours so the water can extract the nutrients and medicinal qualities. Strain off petals.
Other Summer Treats: Add rose petals in ice cubes to flavor your tea or water. Make rose-petal-and-honey popsicles with juice or an oatstraw infusion. (See Opening to Oatstraw in Issue #3.)
Rose Petal Honey: Fill a 1-quart canning jar ½ full with fresh rose petals, add honey to ¾ full and close tightly. The seal and ring that come with the canning jar prevent honey from oozing. Place on a plate and rotate the jar every day so that the honey moves down through the petals again. In 3 - 4 days, your rose honey will be sweetly scented and ready to use.
Uses: Add rose honey to hot tea for lifting energy, restoring focus or turning the tide when you feel that you are about to come down with an illness. Spread it on toast or bake into bread, cookies or cakes.
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Readily Available through your Local Herbalist: RavenCroft offers dried petals, as well as loose tea mixes that contain rosehips for cold and flu support, stress relief and woman's health. You can also find food-grade rose water, that comes from the distillation production of rose essential oil, in Pakistani, Indian or specialty food stores. It can be used in medicine-making, and Sally also recommends it for cooking, where in very small doses it adds incredible flavor to familiar recipes such as strawberry shortcake. Try rosehips in a chicken stock. For food and medicinal purposes, it's important to know how your roses have been cared for. Many commercial roses are tended with pesticides and have had other chemicals applied to them to keep their buds looking perfect.
Heart Song: Sally loves rose's symbiotic nature: "The plant evokes a song in the person; the song then nourishes the rose." That sounds like a friendship full of heart...
Located near Monroe, WA, RavenCroft Garden is an educational center connecting people, plants and the earth. It is home to founder EagleSong, Community Centered Herbalist (CCH) and Director Sally King, CCH, who work with herbs as a foundation for creating health: 360-794-2938 or www.ravencroftgarden.com.
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