Happy Spring Equinox! The freshness of Spring is all around now in Northern California. Now is a great time to wild-gather fresh spring greens like Chickweed, Cleavers, + Violets to add to your diet for a gentle spring cleanse. Teas make an easy way to incorporate fresh spring greens into your routine.
While Wild Rose isn't blooming yet I am thoroughly excited about a couple plants I have successfully propagated from my wild stand. They are thriving and I can't wait to see their light pink blooms so I have decided to speak about her and her wonderful uses and benefits.
If Rose is Queen of flowers, Wild Rose is her young wild and beautiful Princess daughter.
Wild harvesting her over the years has become one my favorite things to do. Blooming during the hot days of summer, I usually make my way to her in the early morning time, while the air is still ever so slightly hanging onto the coolness of night.
Wild rose prefers full sun but here she grows in the shade of oak trees. I find lots next to the creek. She has flourished here in the shady yet pretty sunny space spreading out and creating a large barrier between the creek and myself.
I carefully wade into this stand of wild rose, somewhat becoming apart of this growth myself. After years of harvesting from this stand I do indeed feel apart of it. She grows just about as tall as me in this spot, happy as can be. As I pick blooms the bees buzz around me as they go about their own jobs of collecting pollen. The sun is still low in the sky but high enough to shine his golden rays through these plants and straight into my heart and eyes.
I fill my basket and every now and then I put it up to my face and take a deep breath in. Just inhaling her fresh perfume in this way uplifts my spirits and puts a wide smile on my face. This, I think to myself often, must be heaven.
I look forward to making beauty and medicine products with her beautiful blooms. I do not rush this process. Slow beauty, slow medicine feels good.
“The roses under my window make no reference to former roses or better ones; they are what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are many wild rose species on the West Coast: Rosa nutkana, Rosa rubiginosa, Rosa californica, and Rosa woodsii are some of them. Wild Roses prefers full sun to light shade and are found in a variety of habitats such as shorelines, floodplains, stream banks, meadows, open forests and at forest edges.
Wild Rose Skin and Health Benefits
Wild Rose has so many uses. I am always so grateful to be able to have the experience of wild rose every summer. Her fresh and dried flowers and hips are both used. While most of us probably aren’t making Rosehip seed oil at home it is a superb addition to our Rose Repertoire. The flowers and hips both have beautifying, soothing, regenerating and nutrition qualities. Her scent alone can calm an anxious mind and soul and in this way she makes a good botanical perfume for use as needed.
The Flowers gently tone and astringe the female reproductive system, harmonize blood flow and tones the respiratory system. The essential oil comes from the distillation of the flowers and is a superb ingredient in all natural skin care products. Rose hydrosol is a great astringent for facial care and is also a great cool down spritz on hot summer days.
The Hips are high in Vitamin C, bioflavonoids and polyphenols, all of which are important for immune system function, healing to the cardiovascular system and also for colds, infections, skin regeneration, collagen production and skin elasticity. It’s not hard to see the myriad benefits of Wild Rose.
Rosehip oil is a dry or non-greasy, oil that will lock in your skin’s natural hydration and oils. This makes it a great moisturizer for ALL skin types.
Rosehip oil is high in vitamins A and C. Vitamin A, or retinol, encourages skin cell turnover. Vitamin C also aids in cell regeneration, boosting overall vibrance and kicking dull skin to the curb!
Vitamins A and C are also both necessary for the production of collagen (essential for skin elasticity and firmness). Rosehip has also been shown to inhibit the creation of MMP-1, an enzyme that breaks down collagen in the body.
Polyphenols and anthocyanin, organic phytochemicals found in rosehips, majorly help reduce inflammation! Rosehips also contain vitamin E, an antioxidant known for its anti-inflammatory effects. Inflammation can cause skin symptoms such as inflamed and irritated red skin, broken capillaries, or crusty itchy skin.
Antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E have been shown to synergistically combat visible sun damage and may also help prevent photo aging! We all know exposure to the sun plays a major role in premature aging. Did you know UV exposure could interfere with the body’s ability to produce collagen?
Rosehip oil has essential fatty acids and antioxidants a plenty! These are essential for the natural tissue and cell regeneration processes that take place in the skin.
There are many ways to use Wild Rose as food and for beauty and medicine. I love infusing honey with flowers and every year I infuse honey with roses, lilacs and violets. Yum! The flowers and the hips can be made into teas, tinctures, jam/jelly, elixirs and cordials. Infusing your favorite oil with fresh or dried flowers can be the base for perfumes, salves and lip balm.
Wild Rose Magick
The magick of Roses is inescapable. Throughout time Wild rose blooms and hips fresh or dried can be used in spells, rituals, celebrations, and the like to imbibe her mystical properties to your workings for love, romance, abundance, self-love, happiness, luck and protection.
Recipes
Persian Rose Tea
1- cup good quality loose-leaf black tea like Darjeeling, Ceylon or Assam
¼- cup wild rose petals or other fragrant small petal roses
2- teaspoons green cardamom seeds, chopped fine or powdered (optional)
Cut rose petals into small pieces with scissors. If you can get whole green cardamom pods for this recipe it is worth it. They are much more fragrant and flavorful than powdered cardamom. Open the green pods up with your fingernail and remove the dark seeds. They do not look like much beside mouse droppings but if you taste one you will see why they have inspired cooks for thousands of years. Finely chop the seeds. Mix all ingredients together and store.
Brew: 1-2 teaspoons tea per cup of boiled water. Steep about 5 minutes (depending on how strong you like it) and serve with your favorite nut milk and honey.
Rose Infused Oil
Dried or fresh rose petals
Jojoba oil, coconut oil or other oil of choice
Clean dry jar, size of your choice
Cut roses into small pieces with scissors. Fill your jar 2/3 full with petals. Cover with oil to the top of the jar. Place the jar in a warm sunny windowsill for one moon-month. Shake about once a day. Strain and bottle. Label clearly and use within 6 months for maximum freshness.
There are many beautiful products one can make with Wild Rose. Teas, Tinctures, Elixirs, Infused oils, Salves, Creams, Perfumes; the potential is endless. Wild Rose’s benefits are numerous and create a glow of beauty from the inside out when used as food and medicine. Venturing to a Wild Rose stand and gathering alongside buzzing bees is also gift in itself. I leave you with a quote from Abundance by Deepak Chopra. I think Rose embodies what he describes here although he is talking about humans.
“To attain wealth of the lasting kind, the kind that gives your life meaning, value and sustenance, base your daily existence on the generosity of spirit.”
Rose is featured in many of Moon Wise Herbals products:
Fireweed and Raspberry Facial Serum
Helichrysum and Rose Healing Body Oil
