Rose-Roses-Dried Rose Petal

#Rose #DriedRosePetal : We shifted our home to Bangalore, the garden city from Trichy in 1991. It was our first transfer. The weather was so cool and pleasant. We stayed in an old big bungalow for a brief period before moving into a house. The bungalow was surrounded by many big trees and had a small garden in the front with flowering plants. True to its name Bangalore's roads were lined with big big trees and had many gardens with rose plants of many colors.
After few months we shifted our home to a flat in 1st floor of a two storey apartment building. The apartment had 6 houses with 2 houses in each floor. When we first opened the windows of our bedroom, we were in for a great surprise. The garden on the ground floor had many types of roses in all colors and was a great visual treat for us. I had seen the owner of the garden spending long hours since dawn in her garden. The garden was always colorful because of the tireless work of the owner. Since then I wanted to have a nice garden with all kinds of flowers and especially roses in all colors and shades. But it never happened till we had been transferred to Chittaranjan.



We have been shifting our house once in three or four years to different places in India. When we set up our home in those places either it would be in the first floor or even if it was ground floor there won't be enough space for garden.
We came to Chittaranjan, West Bengal in July 2019. We had been allotted an old bungalow with lawn and garden in the front. It was surrounded by different types of trees on other three sides of the house. We occupied the house during monsoon season last year. The previous occupant had planted several rose plants on all four sides of the lawn at regular intervals. Except the lawn other parts of garden were covered with wild grasses because of rains and also the house was unoccupied for a long time. It took us nearly a month or so to clear the wild growth.
Then we started concentrating on rose plants. We pruned the branches of the plants and applied dried cow dung manure. Slowly some of the rose plants started flowering. But the roses were either too small or not looking healthy. Also the color of the flower looked very pale. Then we got a full truck load of vermicompost from the nursery garden. We asked gardener to apply a full bucket of vermicompost around each rose plant. He dug around rose plant and placed vermicompost near the roots. Since it was raining we didn't water the plants. New green shoots started to appear.  We were delighted when rose buds started appearing in some of the plants. Moreover the colors of the roses had become deep & healthy and the stems became thick & strong. Still there were many plants which weren't flowering.
Among the rose plants six plants of same type seemed to be very old which had lots of branches and bushy at the base. The plant's growth was as high as a man's height.
The winter had started in October and at the end of November 2019, the temperature started dipping down further. Gardener pruned all the branches of the six rose plants and left only the base of the plant. Then he applied vermicompost around the base and started watering them.

After fifteen to twenty days one or two buds started appearing but flowers weren't healthy at all. But we were happy that at last the plants have started flowering. Then exactly one month after pruning the plants, we saw a bunch of fresh buds on 23rd December.

Yes, a deep pink color rose bloomed. It was a great joy for us. Daily one or two started blooming here and there.

In between we had been to our native place for ten days in the first week of January and returned back to Chittaranjan just before Pongal. As soon as we entered into our compound our first observation was large number of buds in the rose plants. It was a pleasant surprise and we couldn't believe our eyes. Unbelievable!! We pinched ourselves to make sure that it is real and not in dreams. The sight of so many buds on each rose plant gave us great joy and a sense of achievement.

The garden has become splendid with all shades of pink since Pongal. We saw honey bees fluttering over the flowers and they were busy collecting nectar from those rose flowers. Some days when we open our front door and watch from varandah, we could only see flowers over the top and leaves were hidden behind them. Those rose plants looked like rose bouquet inviting us for a new day. Yes, my dream of living with a rose garden finally fulfilled and become reality.

After three or four days the flowers withered away and fell down on the ground. So in order to use them effectively we started preparing tea from petals of 5 to 6 roses daily in the morning and evening. 

We thought of making Gulkhand from petals. But I dropped the idea as the petals have to be soaked in honey or sugar syrup and have to find a proper method of storing them also. During that period I had a chance to watch a travel show on TV about a country, Turkey.

In that show they showed their famous market place and the camera zoomed over the items on display by each shop. Among the display what caught my attention was wide varieties of dried fruits, nuts and dried rose petals. I thought, when they were selling dried rose petals then definitely they must be using them extensively in their food. Subsequently I learned that they use plenty of roses in their food. After seeing that show I decided to dry rose petals and store them in bottles which would be useful in future for tea or to make some sweets. One more important point is that I haven't used any chemicals on these rose plants except vermicompost. So it is purely an organic and chemical free product.



Method :

• Pluck fresh flowers in the morning.
• Remove petals and discard stem and pollen.
• Take petals in a clean and dry plate.
• Keep the plate in an airy place inside the house.
• Stir it up at regular intervals with a ladle or by hand.
• Store in an airtight glass bottle/container when the petal completely dries up and becomes brittle.

Note :
It takes around three to five days to dry the petals at normal room temperature.
It takes nearly a week during winter and rainy season.

I haven't washed the petals in water as my house is located in a dust free place.

If needed wash in clean water once or twice and pat dry with a dry towel or spread the petals on a clean cotton cloth for sometime.

Then transfer into a plate and allow to dry.

Stir them up with a ladle or by hand at regular intervals.



Some other Items to preserve

Dried Curry Leaf

Mint Concentrate

Dried Mint [ Preserving Pudhina ]

Nellikkai mittai - Amla Candy

Vengaya vadavam [ Dried shallots ]