Wild Roses are in Bloom!

Warm weather has finally arrived in the northeast ---Yay! Of course that still changes on a daily basis, but it'll be here for the summer duration any day now (I say hopefully, with fingers crossed). With all this warm weather we have lots of botanicals blooming and our local world has become much more colorful. It is also the time of year when the wild roses are in bloom, and they grow rampant along the Rhode Island coastline. I look forward to picking the rose petals every year. The roses will bloom throughout the summer, but the best time to pick them is in June. I rode my bike (though it’s a short walk) to the beach from my sister's home on Sunday and was rewarded with wild roses aplenty! The rosehips will follow and by late August—early September, will be ready for picking.

Rose petals have long been used in beauty rituals for their scent and beautifying properties. Rose water has a long history both as a tonic for the complexion and to perfume the body. It is reported that Cleopatra favored rose oil and used it to capture the love of Mark Antony.

Rose petals ready for picking.

Here is the bounty--- they smell wonderful! Once the petals are picked and dried, I use them (ground) in my Lavender-Rose Clay Mask, and layer them with a blend of coarse sea salt and Dead Sea minerals for my Wild Rose Bath Salts with Dead Sea Minerals, where the salts will absorb the wonderful scent of the rose petals. They can also be found in Wild Rose & Lavender Soap.