For the most part I prefer plants as close to their natural state as possible and would always take a wildflower over a showy cultivar any day. Not only are they more beneficial for insects and other wildlife but are also much easier to look after, more robust and better suited to their environment.
So my obsession with big, beautiful, temperamental and highly scented roses is quite out of character. I don’t love the exquisite wild roses of our hedgerows any less because of it and from them I make a lovely cooling and astringent tincture as well as using the hips later in the year. Our wild roses are not that highly scented however so to make the delicious, sweet, aromatic rose tincture that makes even the iciest of hearts begin to thaw, I really need to use cultivated roses. That’s my excuse anyway.
Most people tend to use either Rosa damascena, The Damask Rose, or Rosa gallica, The Apothecary’s Rose, to make aromatic tinctures and both produce some lovely medicines.
I’ve been quizzing different herbalists for a while about which roses they prefer for tincture making but it was Stephen and Carol Church, whose rose tincture is the most divine I have yet to taste, whose advice and method I have stuck with. They recommended using ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ a lovely pink English rose with a beautiful, strong scent. It apparently has the highest yield of volatile oils of all roses. I bought one last year and have been experimenting this summer with their directions.
They advise macerating the petals in the alcohol for no more than 24 hours, a much shorter amount of time than usually allowed for tinctures. What this achieves is extraction of the volatile oils but without all the tannins which make rose tincture quite drying. Part of the nature of rose as a medicine is that it is cooling and drying but there are plenty of times when I want to work with the aromatic healing qualities of rose without using a medicine that is overly astringent. Besides, it tastes so much more delicious this way and that, as you know, is a big part of the magic of Rose. In her first growing year, my plant has yet to produce the abundance of flowers that Stephen and Carol’s do so I have just been experimenting with small quantities this summer. To make a specific tincture, that is one from fresh petals, try using a 4o% vodka, 1:2, which means one part rose petals by weight to two parts vodka by volume. Remember that rose petals are very light however so you need to cram a lot in! I actually didn’t have enough flowers blooming all at once to get the right proportion so I double infused it instead and it has still come out nicely.
Here ends the informative part of this post, the rest is just gratuitous rose indulgence. You have been warned!
My husband’s favourite rose in the garden and possibly mine, were I to have favourites, is the floribunda Margaret Merril. She has it all, beauty, elegance, scent and attractiveness to insects. She starts as a perfect creamy bud with a blush of pink…
…and opens to form a perfect, white, deliciously scented bloom.
Along with the Apothecary’s Rose and Gertrude Jekyll, I have one more pink rose, ‘Scepter’d Isle’. Though not as sweetly fragranced as some of the others, she has a delicacy of presence that is healing just to look upon. This picture, taken after a heavy rain, does not really do her justice.
We have two miniature roses on the kitchen windowsill. The pink one I found in the middle of the road last year without a pot. I always wonder how it could have ended up there, victim of a lovers quarrel perhaps? I was quite happy to give it a home and it is much loved and admired now.
I have also found a passion for orange, yellow and apricot roses this year. I fell in love with ‘Graham Thomas’ during our trip to Mottisfont Abbey, home of the National Collection of Old Roses, and found it impossible to leave without one.
‘Lady Emma Hamilton,’ my most recent acquisition, has the cheeriest disposition and the sweetest of scents.
‘Wollerton Old Hall’ is another new addition, a very generous early birthday gift from my lovely colleague and fellow rose obsessor, Laura. Isn’t it just beautiful?
And I have shown off my joyful little miniature climber ‘Warm Welcome’ before. Bred by my uncle and given to me by my Dad, its a firm favourite in my garden and is covered with small but wonderfully vibrant blooms.
My wish list is ever expanding and includes the gorgeous dark bloomed Rosa gallica ‘Tuscany’, a rambler to cover the ugly old tank by the gate and the lovely ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ which I have much admired at The London College of Physicians gardens. We are in the process of getting rid of our car parking space in order to accommodate them all!
What are your favourite roses? For medicine making or for pure enjoyment?
HOW BEAUTIFUL!!!! im in love with your picture of ‘Margaret Merrill’……wow xxxx
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Thanks Holly! Roses are the best aren’t they. xx
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Hi Lucinda,
What a wonderful post. I am sure roses cast a spell on me. Each time I see them I go into some sort of hypnotic state. I could not choose a favourite amongst yours. Though possibly Margaret Merrill.
My personal favourite is the rambler ‘Rambling Rector’….I adore it’s simplicity, it’s perfume, which fills my garden on a warm summers evening, and the way it scrambles through everything it touches. I am quite obsessed with this particular rose. The rector and I have had a long and difficult relationship, but he is at last coming around to my way of thinking and has bloomed his little socks off this year 🙂
I use rose absolute as a perfume……I love it.
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Yes I know just what you mean. I have to allow extra time to get to work just so I can stop and smell all the roses in people’s gardens on the way.
Rambling Rector sounds lovely, it might be a good option for covering our oil tank. I do love the sprawling habit of the ramblers, there’s something so picturesque about them.
The perfume of the roses is the most important factor for me when choosing one and I too use either a Rose or Neroli blend as perfume. Try rubbing a drop over your heart chakra, it is so healing and relaxes the shoulders and whole chest area.
xx
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Hello Luncida,
Thank you for the wonderful pictures and the text, because I like so much roses, and specially english roses…
Living in paris, I cannot grow roses, but in a small garden In Roscoff (where my husband has a small house ) there is an old rose without name which makes rather small pink-red flowers. I use them for tinctures, “miel rosat’, vinegar and co.
I also tried tincture with fresh damascena , centifolia, and others roses.
The small thinks I have learned:
-I use my nose to know when to stop the macération, sometimes it is only one day, if I want to keep the perfume!
-the tincture with centifolia is wonderful and keeps its perfume for a long while
-very often, to enhance the perfume, I use alcool with high grade (96° for exemple) and I cut it with hydrolate of rose
-for troubles with the eyes, the best for me is the rosa gallica (rose de Provins) . I use dried petals, prepared as a tea in mineral water , and after on a clean pad on the eyes. Anyways, if not rosa gallica, I use the darkest red petals I can find because they are full of very anti-inflammatory anthocyanines , the pigments which give them the colour.
– For the same reason, when I prepare rose vinegar, wonderful against burns, I use very red roses (and I add organic green tea).
With your advices, I am going to look for a Gertrude Jekyll (even it is perhaps a difficult task…)
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Hi Venezia,
Thank you for your great tips! I haven’t used rose for the eyes before but it makes a lot of sense being cooling. anti-inflammatory and astringent so I will remember it next time I need something.
I love your method of adding rose water to the alcohol too, I’m sure that is quite delicious!
I don’t have a Rosa centifolia yet but I would like to add one to the collection. As an essential oil I prefer the damascena but I will experiment with the tincture when the opportunity arises.
Thanks again for sharing your experiences.
Love Lucinda x
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hello again…
I forgot to tell that if you are enough lucky to have a lot of fresh petals, it is possible to make an “oil of roses” following an old recipe; it’s worth it.
(here : http://princesseaupetitpois.over-blog.com/article-7239702.html
-sorry to put the link here, but it is a good recipe… –
I like the eo of bulgarian rosa damescena ad the absolute of turkish rosa damascena, or absolute of centifolia, more difficult to find. The indian attars of rose are very interesting too, though more”oriental” style
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Oo lovely. I tried rose oil a couple of times but not with Gertrude Jekyll, I’m sure it would be amazing. x
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We have a lovely small native rose here, the Nootka rose. Many people use it to create natural hedges as it grows and spreads fast and is prickly. It is also used for the rosehips. I also love the deep, deep garnet red and wonderful scent of a Mr. Lincoln rose and, like you, found one on the side of the road. There is nothing so disappointing as bending to sniff a rose of beautiful color in the garden store, only to find out scent has been sacrificed for color. I have never cared for cut roses, but love them in the garden. However, I fail at growing them. I follow all the pruning instructions and still manage to do in the plant.
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Hi Lisa, I so agree, it’s such a disappointment to find that a rose has no smell at all. Many of the cut roses seem a little ‘plasticy’ in relation to real ones. They have such long straight stems I always wonder what they look like on the plant, I’ve never seen one.
I just searched for the Nookta rose on Google images, it’s so beautiful. There is something so perfect about the wild roses.
I think roses are notoriously difficult to grow in some areas, they seem to do ok here but the blooms suffer from our high winds.
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These photos are gorgeous. I absolutely love the Graham Thomas and the Wollerton Old Hall. I may have to get adventurous and plant something new in the yard this fall!
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Good idea, there are so many beauties you could go on forever planting new ones!
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Oh Lucinda! What an absolute treat to feast my eyes on all your beautiful roses. If only scent could also be sent through the computer! The names alone of all the old rose varieties are so intruiging and I bet they each have a story to go with the name. I’m not sure I could choose a favorite from amongst your selection – each are so beautiful in their own way – but I am rather taken with the minature rose you found without a pot in the road, partly because of the mystery around that! I must confess that I have yet to grow a rose – shocking but true! The rose that I do love around here – the rugosa rose – is quite prolific in the wild so I haven’t had the incentive (at least not until reading this!). That’s a great tip about letting the tiincture infuse only 24 hours – I’ve always wondered why my rose elixir never came out quite as good as I’d hoped. Thanks again for this delightful indulgence, I’m now off to start my day in a rose induced spell:)
XOXO
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Yes I agree about the names, I just got given a book for my birthday called ‘A Rose By Any Name’ all about the history and lore of rose names. Should be very interesting I think!
xxx
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Dear Lucinda,
Oh, what a lovely post! I am in “rose heaven,” just from the descriptions! I’m missing my Gertrude Jekyll rose that I left behind in Idaho when we moved. Maybe I could talk my mum into making a tincture for me; you never know!
You have given me lots of good ideas for what to plant when we finally settle down (hopefully soon).
Love,
Marqueta
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I love the Apothecary’s Rose, they are beautiful. I’ve come across a fungi to help feed them too. The fungi essentially helps the rose build a secondary root system. It’s excellent.
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Researching making rose tincture came across your blog. Thank you for such wonderful suggestions.
I am starting to order plants for my garden. Faces north and has 2 large native dog wood trees. This garden will be dedicated to food, majik, and medicine.
I am on the hunt for roses. This has proven to be a challenge, as it appears not many roses are free of chemicals. =(
Any suggestions on where I might purchase roses that are sans chemicals, are pure and still have their fullness intact.
I live in portland oregon. I am pretty sure I will have to order from a source online.
Hope I can get roses that I desire. Their majik is needed in my garden.
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Hi Tami,
I am in the UK so don’t know much about US suppliers. Do you have any local medicinal herb growers that you could try?
Or anyone that could do you some cuttings?
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