The Roses Are Blooming!

The Roses are blooming! I’ve enjoyed this misty morning outside in the garden harvesting the many blossoms. The damasks, bourbons, English Roses and other antique roses are the first to bloom. Constance Spry and Sarah Van Fleet have been blooming their hearts out for a week or more. Belinda, our huge hybrid musk in the picture on the left is almost in full bloom. The true teas are just starting to bloom and will continue through the summer until Fall.

Every Spring my roses amaze me with their beauty and generosity.

I am distilling our second batch of rose blossoms today and the fragrance is heavenly! We will be busy distilling hundreds of pounds of roses over the next few months. Now, as I sit here at my computer, I can look out my office window to the gardens where the roses live while I enjoy the lovely rose fragrance and Gary Stadler’s lovely music! Gary Stadler is the wonderful man who designed and created my distillation equipment and made it possible to obtain our exquisite hydrosols. I always listen to Gary’s music when distilling our hydrosols.

This morning I overslept and didn’t wake up until 6:00am. But so far this morning, I’ve answered emails, harvested and distilled roses – stopped a few minutes to smell them – fed the animals, pulled a few weeds, worked with the seedlings – 4 varieties of basil, two varieties of cucumbers, two varieties of okra – checked on the garden veggies – answered a couple of business calls and it’s now 9:00am. By 10:00 am I need to finish with the gardening so Sally and I can take a walk and I can shower and be in the warehouse by 11:00am to finish processing orders I promised would go out today.

I'll write more later, but for now will share some pictures of my beloved roses, lemon balm, Sally and me!