This old fashioned Rosa Rugosa is so delicious smelling. It will perfume the entire back yard when in bloom. It is a shrub rose and is quite thorny and really it doesn't bloom for very long in the spring but still I wouldn't be without it in the garden.
We use this fragrant rose to make rose petal vinegar which is so flavorful on salads or it can be used as a fragrant hair rinse. The flowers can also be dried and blended with sugar for a gentle rose flavored sugar to use to sweeten tea. We do not dead head this rose so that we will get a generous harvest of very large rose hips in the fall. They make a yummy tea which is very high in Vitamin C and they can also be used to make jam. If I had to pick just one rose to have in my garden it would be this old fashioned beauty.
I am a big fan of this cultivar (or is that varietal)? Either way, I LOVE the old fashioned rose fragrance!
ReplyDeleteWe have a very similar rugosa rose and I have never done anything with it. I would love to try a jelly with the rose hips this fall. They are beautiful.
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