A Rose is a Rose is a Rose
by David Stewart, Ph.D., R.A.
Most men and women enjoy perfumes, whether they are colognes, aftershave lotions, sachets, or costly potions to titillate emotions. There are perfumes for the morning, for the working day, for ocassions of entertainment, for the evening, and for the night. Some people wear different fragrances according the occasion and the time of day. People usually wear fragrances for a purpose.
Flowers do the same. If you have a rose garden, you may have sampled their perfumes individually by putting your nose right into the bloom. If you haven't done this, I recommend it. The first thing you will notice is that every variety of rose has its own distinct signature of scent.
People are like that, too. They pick perfumes that suit their personalities, which is an individual thing for each person. We express our personalities through our choices of the scents we choose to wear. Roses do the same. From an individual roses point of view, they want to be a rose that stands out, one that is different from the rest of the bushs and even from every other rose on the same bush. Try smelling several roses on the same bush and you will learn that there is not just one scent associated with that variety, but a suite of scents. While each rose flower shares the common characteristics of its family, it expresses a unique individuality as well.
Another thing you will notice about roses is that they also change their perfumes with the time of day. What they wear in the morning won’t be the same as in the afternoon or night. Jasmine, for example, attracts certain night flying insects. Hence, its strongest fragrance is released after midnight, before sunrise. Since the primary purpose of a flower's odor is to attract pollinating insects, adjusting scents throughout the day actually attracts different insects at different times, just as different insects come out at different times from early morning, to late afternoon, to evening, and through the dark of night.
Flower fragrances also change with the aging of the bloom. You will notice in smelling your rose blossoms closely and individually, is that what they waft as a new partially opened bud is not the same as in the mature blossom. Scents are normally not strong in the bud because at that time, the petals are not yet open and ready for pollinating visitors. It is when they are newly and fully opened that Their perfume is the strongest. When a flower ages and its pollination is complete, it loses its scent, its purpose having been
Fulfilled. All of this is something you can experience in your own rose garden (or someone else’s).
Gertrude Stein, has aptly said in her poetry, A rose is a rose is a rose, (Sacred Emily, 1913). It was her attempt to express the inexpressible the singular beauty, touch, and fragrance of a rose. Rose oil is probably the most expensive of all essential oils and has the highest electromagnetic frequency (320 MHz). Thousands of pounds of petals are required to distill even one pound of precious oil. It's aroma is physically, mentally, and spiritually elevating. Many eyewitnesses to miracles, visions, and spiritual manifestations have reported the scent of roses lingering about the site of the experience.
Most people cannot afford to purchase rose oil, but you don't have to wait until you buy it to experience it? It is available at no cost to everyone. Just find a blooming raised bush and start inhaling. What you will receive is true, pure, unadulterated rose oil directly from the flower, itself. You will also enjoy the visual beauty of its appearance at the same time. By caressing the flowers gently with your fingers and by letting your nose come into contact with the velvet surface of the petals, you will experience the rose with three senses, not just one‹sight, smell, and touch. Some people even eat rose petals, thus engaging the sense of taste, taking traces of the oil internally.
This is the way God originally meant for us to enjoy essential oils, by inhaling and contacting them directly from nature the way Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 2:8) In our busy lives, we mustn't forget to stop once and a while to smell the roses.
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Healing power of rose treats most dangerous diseases
Bacteria die within five minutes when contacted with fresh rose petals
Rose is an astonishingly beautiful flower which is why it is poetized and immortalized in legends. Long ago, the first rose was raised from an ordinary dog-rose; some unknown gardener did it about four thousand years ago.
Ancient doctors used rose water to treat upset nerves, fumed patients suffering from lungs diseases with rose incense and gave extracts of rose petals to patients suffering from heart and kidney diseases.
Attar of roses is the basic medical component of roses; it stimulates and harmonizes people's immune and nervous systems. It also improves activity of endocrine glands, removes sclerous disorders in organs and revives cells. Attar of roses is good for digestive tract as it heals mucous membranes, fights disbacteriosis and fermentative deficiency in stomach and intestine.
Rose petals contain vitamin C, carotene, B group vitamins and vitamin K that is essential for haemopoesis. Almost all mineral substances of Mendeleyev's periodic table can be found in rose petals. They contain calcium that influences metabolism and assimilation of foodstuffs; also potassium which is important for normal heart activity, copper that participates in haemopoesis and improves activity of endocrine glands; iodine that is good for thyroid gland can be also found in rose petals. The list of rose's virtues is long enough which allows to call rise a universal natural medicine.
It is recommended to collect rose petals early in the morning when the air is clean and humid, better after rain or abundant dew. Blossomed out but not fading roses will do for collection of petals. When collected, rose petals should be immediately dried or used for treatment without washing to preserve their health-giving components. Collected rose petals may be used for making extracts, decoctions, rose water or attar of roses.
Bacteria die within five minutes when contacted with fresh rose petals which makes rose a perfect medicine for fighting skin diseases. Fresh rose petals will help cure festering wounds and burns; they may also alleviate allergic itching.
Powder of dried rose petals mixed with honey is an effective medicine against mouth inflammations, stomatitis and paradontose. The mixture should be rubbed into inflamed gums. Headaches, sickness and weakness can be cured with inhalation of roses and attar of roses. Rose inhalations are also recommended to people with poor nervous system, liable to neurosis and depressions. Put a bowl with hot water and rose petals in the room in case you suffer from nervous diseases, cold in the head, cough and flu.
Attar of roses perfectly tones up the cardiac muscle that is why doctors prescribe rose inhalations for stenocardia treatment. Bath with rose petals is a perfect remedy against nervous diseases: it tones up, rejuvenates, relieves anxiety and purifies skin. Pour boiling water over half a glass of rose petals and infuse in a closed bowl to preserve attar of roses. Pour the infusion and the petals into the bath; the infusion's healing power will be stronger if beetroot juice is added to this bath. Never throw faded rose bunches away and make curative baths of them.
Spraying with rose water is recommended for treatment of many diseases. Pour a glass of boiling water over 10g of rose petals and infuse in a covered bowl. Everyday spraying within two weeks is recommended to people suffering from nervous disorders. In this case, spraying with warm rose water should be done on the upper third of the back. Spraying with rose water is good for healthy people as well to strengthen the nervous system and immunity. Apply rose water to skin and slightly rub. Warm rose water bath for feet helps cure rheumatism; hot compress with rose water applied to sacrum is good against radiculitis. Wrap a bad-sheet wetted with rose water round the body to tone up the organism after a surgical operation. Then muffle up with a dry bed-sheet and a blanket.
Tea made of rose petals (a tea-spoon of dried rose petals per a glass of boiling water) is good against cold, pharyngitis, bronchitis and various neuroses; it is a vitaminous drink as well. Rose petal jam is a wonderful natural medicine especially in cold weather.
If rose therapy is not available you may use dog-rose as its characteristics are the same as of roses. Hips are to be collected
within the period of late August to October when they are still hard. Green hips will not do for drying as they contain fewer vitamins. Fresh hips should be dried in the shade away from direct sunrays. Better use a special dryer or an oven (at temperature of 80-100 degrees centigrade).
The content of ascorbic acid in hips is ten times more than in blackcurrant, 50 times more than in lemon and 100 times more than in apples. At that, the supply of vitamin C depends upon the area of dog-rose vegetation. Hips collected in the north contain more vitamin C than hips collected in the south. Hips grown in the mountains or sunlit places contain more ascorbic acid than those grown in plains or shaded areas.
Dog-rose is called a natural concentrate of vitamins: besides vitamin C it contains vitamins B1, B2, P, K and carotene. That is why hips extracts, decoctions and syrup are perfect medicine and prophylactic against beri-beri and hypovitaminosis. To make hips extracts and infusions even more effective add some honey or lemon juice before drinking. This is a unique medicine against cold, flu, chronic bronchitis, lungs diseases, stomach and duodenum ulcer and others. If mixed with carrot juice, hips extract will contain almost all vitamins and minerals that people need.
To make a healing beverage against cold, flu and bronchitis mix two portions of dried hips with one portion of dried nettle leaves. Drink half a glass of the beverage twice a day with honey.
Hips are perfect surrogate of coffee: they are as aromatic and tasty as coffee beans. Grind a tea-spoon of dried and fried hips and pour a glass of boiling water over the powder. Let it brew for some time, then drink with some milk and sugar.