The Symbol

The rose is often considered the queen of flowers, maybe because of her sheer beauty. Not that other flowers aren't beautiful, but somehow the rose seems to be special. The rose is the symbol for love, not only for physical love but also mystical love. She is one of the primary symbols of the Rosicrucian's. The Rose on their cross becomes the center, when you fold the cross correctly into a cube - meaning that love is the center of everything or the essence of life.

The rose was found in the sarcophagus of Tutankhamon, and it was said that the beginning of the Persian rose oil production was, when Emperor Djihanguyr married Princess Nour-Djihan and at that occasion filled all the canals of his gardens with rose water.

There is a huge treasure of stories and poems about the rose and I could go on and on and on.

The Business

When I searched for rose and business I came up with 1'006'563 findings - from garden roses, to silk roses, to wholesale for flower shops and many more. I wanted to find out just how big the rose business is, but I am not that good with the search machine, yet. What I do know, the rose is a world-wide business. When I buy roses here, they often come from Latin America or Africa, especially the ones under the Haavelar label (sort of fair pay label). I know this ecological nonsense, but it is difficult to find local roses. So my guess is roses are easily a multi-billion dollar business.

One part of that big business is perfumes. One of the most treasured ingredients is the Bulgarian or Damascene rose. It is also one of the most expensive ones, as
Rose absolute (Rosa damascena) it sells for 2990$ per kg. As essential oil the price per kg isn't even given on the website. The Rose essential oil (otto) concum 250 g ( 8.825 oz) is priced at 1740$. This makes the Damascene Rose one of the most expensive perfume ingredients, and this is just one ingredient. No wonder natural perfumes are so expensive. However, you can easily smell the difference compared to a perfume that uses synthetic ingredients.

If you would like to know more about the 330 year History of the Bulgarian Rose oil the link leads you there. The Bulgarian rose oil production has a long tradition:

The history of rose oil production and the allied aromatic industries can be traced through four periods, starting from the mid-17th c. Different in length as they may be, each of these periods is characterized by a specific method, or technology employed, and tools of production, or equipment, used, as well as by the way the production was organized.

So, maybe if you are looking for good investments, Givaudan or other perfume companies might be good investments. Perfumes have been used for thousands of years and my guess is they will be used for a long time to come.

One of the uses of rose oil is perfumes, but it is often an important ingredient in cosmetics and skin care products, because of its soothing, anti-inflammatory and rejuvenating effects. Though here mostly the rosa mosceta is used.

The Herb

Medicinally rose leaves are considered mildly laxative and were also used for healing wounds.

In Aromatherapy its fragrance is considered to help with depression, insomnia, nervous tensions and more.

Roses can also be considered health food, especially the rose hips of the rosa canina. I love the rose hip jam `Buttenmost' as it is called here. It evokes childhood memory of hiking up some mountains to collect the rose hips after the first frosts and then the next day cleaning them out. What a mess, it meant black fingers and if you were not careful in removing the seed, which are hairy, itching allover. But it was just delicious spreading it on bread once it was finished. What is more Rose hip is considered one of the best sources for vitamin C, but it also contains vitamins B, E and K, nicotinamid, tannin, pectin and other good stuff.

The Spice

Now maybe one thing the rose is not considered often here in the West is the rose as spice. However, in India and many Arabic countries rose water is an important ingredient in the kitchen.

Here one of my favourites, which is also supposed to help digestion - Lassi, and Indian recipe:

2 cups water
½ cup plain yoghurt
2 tablespoons natural sweetener
1-2 drops rose water

Blend for 1-2 minutes. From the Ayurvedic point of view the blending makes it more easily digestible and increases the digestive fire.

Last but not least:
Interpretation of a Chinese saying - one rose is worth more than a thousand words. Hence, maybe it would be a good idea to give a rose to your beloved today!