My Favourite Flower

I have several favourite flowers (what's not to like about flowers).... daisies, echinacea, peonies (I LOVE peonies) and so many more but I have to say that one of my true loves is the Rugosa Rose. We have several bushes we started from seedlings and they are wonderful for so many reasons.

Living in a Canadian zone 4A these babies are hearty and thrive despite wind, snow, spells of no rain, too much rain, my son Nick's multiple attempts to mow them down with the riding lawnmower.

The flowers are delicate, beautiful, plentiful and bloom more than once. The fragance of the flowers is sublime - there is a purity to the scent of the rugosa never quite captured in any rose fragrance I have ever smelled. The bushes grow well and the leaves are a beautiful dark and shiny green so it looks wonderful even when there are no roses to behold.

Besides being hearty and aesthetically pleasing, the rugosa rose is incredibly giving. The petals can be used for jelly....and it is sooooo delicious. They can also be used for pot-pourri. After the summer, the rosehips can be harvested and used for tea that is both flavourful and full of Vitamin C, iron and antioxidants, as well as jelly, marmalade and even mead.

I sure do love my Rugosa Roses.