Treat Yourself to a Midwinter Spa Day: A Homemade Herbal Valentine’s Gift to Yourself!

By Beth Schreibman Gehring

It’s midwinter, and many of us are stuck inside due to cold weather. To beat the winter blues and celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, why not treat yourself to a homemade herbal spa day? A day spent like this is a perfect opportunity to connect with yourself and bring the beauty of nature inside.

Herbal spa days are an easy and romantic way to soften your dry, parched winter skin using ingredients such as rose petals, essential oils, jasmine, and coconut oil. They can help you create lotions, potions, and body butters that are not only good for your skin, but also have a relaxing and rejuvenating effect on your body, mind, and soul.

To begin, gather all the ingredients you will need for your homemade herbal spa day. I’m including some of my favorite recipes here, or you can find recipes for body butters, lotions, and potions online, and use them to create your own unique blends. Some popular essential oils for skin care include lavender, rose, geranium, and jasmine. You can also add dried flowers, such as rose petals or jasmine blossoms, to your blends for an extra special touch.

I always tell my clients that if you can eat it…you can generally put it on your body. For the most part, this is very safe advice, but always be on the alert for any kind of allergic response to any ingredient you choose.

Here are some of my favorite ingredients for home-crafted body care lotions and potions: 

I love to use raw honey, because it’s naturally antibacterial, full of antioxidants, moisturizing, and very soothing. So, it’s great for calming broken out and parched skin, giving your complexion a needed lift. Its inclusion in any recipe really helps create a glow. Combined with ingredients like ghee, avocado, and green clay, raw honey makes a wonderful face and hair masque.   

I am never without sterile French green clay, because it’s a wonderful base for any face or body masque; it’s like a mini mud bath you can use at home! I’ll often mix green clay with olive oil and a gentle essential oil, like rose oil, to make a simple face masque that I pat on, leave for 15 minutes, and then wash off.

Himalayan salt is another great ingredient for nourishing my skin–it’s like Epsom salts, only better, when used in a bath. The salt eases everyday aches and pains, and it’s also my favorite salt to use in homemade salt scrubs.

Ghee–or clarified butter–is a terrific moisturizer for skin and hair. In my observation, ghee seems to bring a soft glow to the skin that most other oils don’t. It also doesn’t smell odd when you use it the way that regular butter would, making it a wonderful base ingredient for infusing essential oils and fragrant petals for skin softening treats.

To make my favorite body butter, take one cup of ghee and scoop it into a small bowl. Add six drops of rose essential oil, six drops of jasmine essential oil, and three drops of holy basil essential oil. Beat this together with a fork until incorporated. Use as you would any body butter. I particularly love this blend, because it is so very good for your vitality, mood, AND your skin.

If you are lucky enough to have a blooming jasmine plant, pick the fragrant blossoms and mix them gently into the butter, then place the container in a warm (not hot) place. After a few days, pick them out. You will have what is known as jasmine enfleurage. Enfleurage is the perfumer’s art of creating scent by having fragrant flowers release their oils into fat.

Full of fatty acids, coconut oil is another one of my favorite moisturizers for skin and hair. It can be used to remove makeup, but I think it’s at its best when mixed with some coarse brown sugar and a couple drops of your favorite essential oil to make a luscious sugar scrub. All by itself, coconut oil makes a wonderful massage oil, but when blended with a bit of vanilla essential oil, it becomes a heavenly treat.

So, to begin this blissful day, find a quiet corner in your home where you can create a peaceful and calming atmosphere. Buy yourself some beautiful fresh flowers beforehand. Light some candles, play some soothing music, and get ready to pamper yourself. Our goal for this day is pure connection. Bring nature inside. Begin by taking a few minutes to shut your eyes and meditate or take a few cleansing breaths. I like to keep a journal nearby to write down any thoughts that come up before I start. This is more for emptying and quieting the mind, so that I can fully enjoy the treats I’ve prepared!

Once you have gathered everything you are going to use, start by taking a warm bath or shower to open your pores and prepare your skin for all the pampering it’s about to receive. After your bath, apply your homemade lotions and potions to your skin, focusing on areas that are particularly dry. Take your time to massage the products into your skin, letting the ingredients work their magic.

To finish pampering yourself on Valentine’s Day–or any day–I don’t think there’s anything more glorious than a relaxing foot bath. In this recipe, I’ve used pine essential oil, a fragrance that I love for promoting emotional balance, as well as respiratory support, and rose geranium, an oil that I use to help reduce hot flashes in women of a certain age! To make this foot bath, I use hot water, about a cup of Himalayan salt, many of my favorite smooth rocks and crystals that I’ve brought back from the many rivers and seas I’ve visited, two cups of fresh kombucha of any flavor, which is glorious for gently exfoliating the skin, and fresh catnip and rose geranium leaves, whose scents can promote relaxation and joy.  I use three drops of each oil that I wish, but no more than two different oils, and I always add 1/4 teaspoon of olive oil to diffuse the essential oils.

Soak your feet for 15 minutes, drink a relaxing cup of tea, and then dry your feet. Finish by exfoliating with the sugar or salt scrub of your choice, rinse again, and smooth your feet with some of that glorious jasmine body butter. Then, put on a pair of warmed socks and enjoy.

Finally, finish your spa day by wrapping yourself in a soft warm blanket and enjoy the peace and quiet. Take a few deep breaths, and let yourself relax completely and even drift off to sleep for a while. When you awaken, pay close attention, because often the first thoughts upon waking can be the catalysts for important life changes. When you are ready, enjoy another cup of tea or a glass of wine and savor the moment. Don’t forget a delicious piece of chocolate!

A homemade herbal spa day like this one is a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine’s Day and connect with yourself in a way that is normally difficult to do with our busy schedules. It’s a simple and inexpensive way to bring nature inside during this time of the year and help alleviate the midwinter doldrums.

Medicinal Disclaimer: It is the policy of The Herb Society of America, Inc. not to advise or recommend herbs for medicinal or health use. This information is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as a recommendation or an endorsement of any particular medical or health treatment. Please consult a health care provider before pursuing any herbal treatments.

Photo Credits: 1) Winter scene (C. Moore); 2) Dried herbs (Canva); 3) Dried rose buds (Victor Wong, Creative Commons); 4) Herbal body butter (Canva); 5) Tea and journal (Canva); 6) Tea (Canva).

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Beth Schreibman Gehring is a lover of all things green, delicious, growing, beautiful, magical, and fragrant. She’s also a lifestyle blogger, storyteller, and occasional wedding and party planner who uses an ever-changing seasonal palette of love, life, and food to help her readers and clients fall madly in love with their lives! Beth lives and works with Jim, her husband of 40 years, and is owned by 17 full sets of vintage dishes, hundreds of books, two cats, one dog, a horse, a swarm of wild honeybees, a garden full of herbs, fruit, vegetables, and old rambling roses, too many bottles of vintage perfume and very soon, a flock of heirloom chickens! In 2014 she took a stab at writing a book called Stirring the Senses: How to Fall Madly in Love with Your Life and Make Everyday a Day for Candles & Wine. Available on Amazon! Join her in her gardens at https://bethschreibmangehring.substack.com/, or contact her at  beth.gehring@stirringthesenses.com

Love and Gardening on St. Valentine’s Day

By Beth Schreibman-Gehring

“ I work at my garden all the time and with love. What I need most are flowers, always.

                                                My heart is forever in Giverny. “

                                                                                                         – Claude Monet

It’s St. Valentines Day, and the whole world smells as if it’s been dipped in a gigantic vat of roses, violet-flavored marshmallows, and chocolate-covered strawberries. It’s been absolutely freezing here in Northeast Ohio, so like most of my herb loving friends, I’m tucked away inside with stacks of rose, seed, tree, and other various and sundry plant catalogs.

Personally? I’m also eating plenty of chocolates and drinking a cup of homemade rose petal and chocolate chai! You‘ll find that recipe below, and I think you will love it!

I have spent many a Valentine’s Day in this way, but as I started writing this, I began thinking about the year that my husband asked me to meet him in France at the tail end of a business trip he’d been on in Spain. It was my very first trip to Paris, and I was completely enchanted by the city and the people I met. Valentine’s Day that year was perfect. We started with tea at Ladurée, where I enjoyed an absolutely delicious pot of jasmine tea and a delectable pastry filled with rosewater and cardamom crème topped with rose petals and fresh raspberries. We ended the day with a fabulous meal of raw oysters and confit of duck on a bed of lentils, with a sauce of orange, lavender, ginger, and honey and, of course, plenty of Champagne, because, after all, we were in Paris!

In between tea and dinner, Jim and I walked hand in hand through the shops and the markets. The shops in Paris are always wonderful, but February the 14th finds them filled with all of the beautiful symbols of romantic love that the French are known for: beautifully hand-dipped and painted chocolates, the softest and most luscious caramels, fabulous perfume, and gorgeous lingerie. But in truth, it’s the flower shops and market stalls that I remember the most, filled with gorgeous bouquets of all kinds and friendly men and women eager and willing to have patient conversations with me (not easy with my limited French!) about their beautiful flowers, produce, breads, cheeses, preserves, and teas. As I wandered happily sniffing and shooting picture after picture, I began to think of my father. It took me a moment, but suddenly I realized why.

When I was a child, our lives completely changed the year that my parents went to France for the first time. I’ll never forget it, because my father went first to Paris and then Giverny and came home a man enchanted. Life at home wasn’t the same after that. It was as if he’d discovered something there in the culture and the landscape, a part of his artistic soul that he’d been missing all along.

Besides possessing a Masters in Biology, Dad was also an excellent painter. But until that trip, he hadn’t paid much attention to his yard. The three acres that we had were pretty basic; what had once been a victory garden lovingly tended by my father and grandfather was covered by a swimming pool. And as for flowers? There were mostly annuals and some pretty boring ones at that. 

Until that trip to Giverny.

My father came home from France and realized what his painting had been lacking the entire time: context, or as the French would say, a raison d’être. Dad set out to build his own garden paradise, and he did so with an absolute passion. I wasn’t at all surprised. Even at a very young age, I could see that my dad was wildly romantic, and after experiencing the gardens that Monet had painted in, he couldn’t help but follow in his footsteps.

That entire winter, life became about his garden, planning his borders, reading and learning about all of the plants that he’d fallen in love with when he was in France. That spring, he began to build the beds, amending the soil, and planting the foundation plants. Within two years, his entire property was completely transformed. His favorites were the fragrant old roses, but his lilies, irises, and peonies were just as luscious. His beds were also filled with every kind of fragrant herb and flower imaginable; everything he touched just thrived. Not one to rely on traditional pesticides, antifungals, and commercial fertilizers to keep his plants healthy, he worked with his soil, which was as rich, sweet, and dark as the chocolate many of us are enjoying today. Every plant had a companion or two, specifically chosen to help it stay healthy and as pest free as possible.

His roses never had that much trouble with black spot, beetles, or mildew…rarely were there bothersome pests that took over and destroyed everything. My father, ever the biologist, always planted with the  pollinators in mind, stressing native plants like serviceberry, aronia, and American cranberry alongside his beautiful flowers. He loved milkweeds and watching the Monarch butterflies. He had a carefully tended patch of sweet woodruff that was always covered with honeybees, which he used to make May wine every spring, and he loved plants like pokeberry and comfrey, letting them grow wherever they wanted to, because he knew that they were biodynamic accumulators—plants that gather nutrients from the soil to store them in a more bioavailable form. At the end of the gardening year, he’d chop these into his beds as mulch.

My father’s gardens had the fattest honeybees and bumblebees, the biggest and juiciest earthworms, and wonderful snakes that would slither through on occasion, much to the delight of his grandsons. He was generous with his knowledge, and he taught me everything I know about building soil and keeping plants healthy without resorting to the use of chemicals. He loved to share his gardens with everyone, especially his children and grandchildren. As I got older, summer nights would find us wandering together with martinis and hoses…watering, mulching, and laughing, and later, would find us in his living room talking about the garden and listening to his extensive collection of classical music. My father lived such an artistic life in so many ways, and he loved to encourage us to do so as well. He was the first person to encourage me to follow my instincts for herbalism, and he is single-handedly responsible for my love affair with old roses and all of the things that I’ve learned over the years to make from their hips and petals.

When I came back from Paris, I began to remember my father’s lessons from his gardens, and as a result, I slowed down. I began to plan my gardens instead of just buying every plant in sight. I began asking myself what would bring me joy—to look at, to smell, and to taste. I began to think of my gardens as an extension of my inner life, my artistic life. That was when my gardens began to find their way into my kitchen, my vases, and my dreams. Everything became connected. When you look at pictures of Giverny, you can see what I mean.

You see that there is a “whole.” The house is the garden, and the garden is the house…there really is no separation.  

Even though my father passed away before I got to share with him the joys of my own trip to Paris, I know that he’d understand when I say that our Valentine’s Day trip brought my life as a gardener into focus. Although I did not go to Giverny as he did, my wandering through France, talking with the florists and farmers, connected me to what he learned so long ago on his own pilgrimage there.

If he were still alive, he would say that gardening is not difficult, but it requires an open heart, an open mind, and a sketchpad; that there is a time to plant and a time to rest; that learning to water correctly is about listening, asking, and observing; that the soil is alive; and that most often, all you need is a great layer of compost. Lastly, that every plant has a best friend that it depends upon for support.

Much like we all do.

I wish you all the loveliest St. Valentine’s Day wherever you find yourself planted.

Rose Petal and Chocolate Chai (no added tea)

You will need:

6 Tablespoons of coconut sugar (if you like it sweeter, add more)

2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

2 Tablespoons of really good cocoa powder

2 tablespoons of finely ground organic rose petals (you can grind these in a coffee grinder)

2 Tablespoons of ground cardamom

1 tablespoon of ground ginger

1 teaspoon of ground Chinese five spice

3/4 teaspoon of ground allspice

1 inch of split vanilla bean (you’ll leave that in there for flavor)

Mix all of these ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk to break the clumps of ginger.

Store in a tightly covered mason jar away from the light.

To make a cup, take one level tablespoon without the vanilla bean (you can always add more, but be careful, it’s spicy!) and place it into a saucepan with a pat of organic butter. Add a cup and a half of almond milk or whatever milk you enjoy. Heat slowly , whisking the entire time to help the cocoa melt. You can also use a hand frother, or a Vitamix if you have one, once the mixture is hot. Sweeten to taste with more coconut sugar or maple syrup.

This recipe is entirely adjustable. Once you make it the first time, you’ll know how you like it. I’ve been known to add even more chocolate!

Photo credits: 1) Cup of Rose Petal and Chocolate Chai; 2) Dessert at Ladurée restaurant in Paris, France; 3) One of the flower shops in Montmartre, France; 4) Monet’s home in Giverny, France (Stock photo on Canva); 5) Author’s father’s sweet woodruff patch; 6) Author’s father’s comfrey patch; 7) Author’s father’s Rosa rugosa; 8) Dried rose petals the author uses for potpourri, jams, and teas. (All photos courtesy of the author except #4.)

 

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Beth Schreibman-Gehring is the Chairman of Education for the Western Reserve Herb Society, a unit of The Herb Society of America. She is also a member of Les Dames de Escoffier International (Cleveland), The Herb Society of the United Kingdom, The International Herb Association, The Herb Society of America, and Herbalists without Borders. Her book, Stirring the Senses! Creating Magical Environments & Feasts for All Seasons, can be found on Amazon.

Baklava Bias

By Keith Howerton

Making baklava, or baklawi/baklawa/ba’lawa, as it’s generally called in Arabic-speaking cultures, is a real pain in the…well, everywhere. Pain in the neck, pain in the wrist, pain in the bank account. My mom used to make it with my aunt once a year, usually around Christmas, and I have managed to dodge helping every single time. Sorry mom. Since her side of the family is Lebanese, we’ve always called it baklawi, so I’ll refer to it as such here, though I usually call it baklava around other people, because otherwise, they won’t know what I’m talking about. Even my laptop doesn’t; it has already auto-corrected baklawi to baklava three times since I started writing.

Greek baklava is essentially a few dozen layers of incredibly thin phyllo dough brushed with melted butter between each layer, and then sliced, baked, and drenched in a honey-based, or sugar-based, syrup to soak into all those buttery, flaky layers of phyllo dough. Usually a light layer of nuts is added halfway through the layering, and again on the top. Sometimes the nuts are tossed with cinnamon before layering them in, and many people also add vanilla extract.

There are probably more versions of baklava/baklawi/baklawa/ba’lawa than there are layers of phyllo dough, which is why I won’t bother writing a detailed recipe here. Okay, if you insist. It’s at the bottom.

Baklava and baklawi, while nearly the same dessert, have one key difference. There will always be other subtle differences between families, bakeries, restaurants, regions, or what have you, but in my experience, there’s one ingredient swap that makes the Lebanese version (and that of the surrounding area) pretty different.

Love.

No, no…wait that’s not right.

The “secret” ingredient is rose water. Or orange blossom water, but my family uses rose water. 

The version my family makes is the same structure as what is described above, except the syrup is infused with rose water. This one ingredient substantially changes the flavor, though it may look the same as baklava. It is very easy to overdo it on the rose water, so if you decide to try out making the Levantine version, go light on the rose water the first time!

Rose water, from my understanding and some quick online searching and YouTubing, is fairly simple to make at home. It’s basically an infusion made from rose petals. I have not done it personally; we always just bought some at a local Middle-Eastern market. And I think the commercially produced stuff is a bit more interesting anyway.

Rosa damascena, or damask rose, an extremely fragrant rose resulting from a natural hybrid of a few different roses, is the preferred species for making rose water. The petals are picked by hand and then distilled. The result is two different products: a waxy, oily substance called attar used in perfumery and the rose water itself. A number of different countries cultivate Rosa damascena, both for the fragrance industry and for food uses, and it’s easy to get lost in the weeds trying to figure out who is producing how much and who they are exporting it to–at least for me. And I find stories more interesting than statistics, anyway. So, I went to a local Mediterranean market and took a look at the different rose water brands they offered. Well, I went to my local big-box store first and then to the Mediterranean market. Let’s start with the big-box store.

I picked up the first bottle of rose water and checked the ingredients. Yikes. I picked up the second. Yikes. Needless to say, I was shocked at the lack of quality in the rose water brands they carried! Jokes aside, I find it a bit surprising you can call something rose water when there is no rose water in it whatsoever.

The Mediterranean market was much better. Both brands I checked contained simply rose water. I purchased a bottle sourced from Lebanon. The Bekaa (or Beqaa) Valley, a sort of agricultural heartland in Lebanon and well-known for its wines and other products, boasts pretty substantial damask rose production, and it’s likely that’s where this manufacturer sourced its rose petals, although it’s difficult to say for sure. 

I did not go out of my way to purchase Lebanese rose water rather than rose water produced somewhere else, but I do like the thought of us using a little piece of Lebanon to make a traditional recipe passed through my family for generations, all the way over here in the United States. 

Once the baklawi is finished, we keep it at room temperature out on the counter and someone, who will remain nameless, will sneak a piece and blame it on Dad.

It’s a painstaking, expensive dessert to make, but it is one of my favorites and one that will always hold a special place in my heart. Just not special enough to actually help. Oh, what’s that you say? We’re making baklawi? Shoot…I’m…I’m busy. Have to walk the cat.

Lebanese Baklawi Recipe

Pastry and filling

2 pounds (7 or 8 cups) chopped walnuts, pistachios, or pecans (my family usually uses pecans)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1 ½ pounds butter

2 pounds (or 2 boxes) phyllo dough

Combine nuts, cinnamon, and cloves. Brush the baking pan with melted butter. Place a layer of phyllo dough sheet on the bottom of the pan and brush with butter. Repeat until you have piled up half of your phyllo dough, each one brushed with butter. Distribute the nut mixture (½ inch thick) over the top of the bed of phyllo dough.. Then add the other half of the phyllo dough on top of the nut mixture, brushing each layer with butter. With a sharp knife, cut in diamonds. Bake at 250 degrees for 2 hours until the top turns a light golden brown and the pastry pulls away from the sides of the pan. Makes 2 dozen. While it is baking, prepare the syrup.

Syrup

3 cups sugar

1 ½ cups water

½-1 tsp rose water

Juice of 1 lemon

Mix sugar, water, and rose water. Boil until tacky and then add lemon juice. When syrup is cool, pour very slowly over baklawi. Do not refrigerate.

 

Photo Credits: 1) Lebanese baklawi (Oasis Baklawa, http://www.oasisbaklawa.com); 2) Rosa ‘Autumn Damask’ and Rosa ‘Kazanlik’ (Chrissy Moore); 3) Lebanese rose water ingredient list (Keith Howerton); 4) Map of Lebanon and Bekaa Valley (www.news.bbc.co.uk).

References

Cherri, Rima. 2019. Syrian rose farmer uses skills to graft new life in Lebanon. The UN Refugee Agency/US. Accessed 6/2021. https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/stories/2019/12/5e01c9164/syrian-rose-farmer-uses-skills-graft-new-life-lebanon.html

Financial Tribune. 2019. Iran meets 90% of global rosewater demand. Accessed 7/15/2021. https://financialtribune.com/articles/domestic-economy/98443/iran-meets-90-of-global-rosewater-demand

The Herb Society of America. 2011. The Herb Society of America Essential Guide: Roses 2012 Herb of the Year. Accessed 7/31/21. https://www.herbsociety.org/file_download/inline/83784ac3-dac2-4586-8d62-6bbf56a98b74

Gourmet Food World. Accessed 7/31/21. https://www.gourmetfoodworld.com/cortas-rose-water-11762#recipes

Mahboubi, Mohaddese. 2015. Rosa damascena as holy ancient herb with novel applications. Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine. Elsevier. Accessed on 6/2021. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2225411015000954

 

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After getting a horticulture degree from Texas A&M University, Keith was the 2017 National Herb Garden intern, and then spent a year and a half in the Gardens Unit at the US National  Arboretum. He has worked with restaurants and hydroponics and now works in urban forestry at Casey Trees in Washington, DC. He is obsessed with all things growing food, foreign languages, and cooking (and eating).

Rose Hips – Herb of the Month

By Maryann Readal

If you grow roses, plan now for rose hips. Simply leave the spent flowers on your rose bushes after their last bloom of the season. Do NOT cut them off. Allow the fruits of the rose, which are the rose “hips,” to ripen on the bush. The hips will turn red or orange depending on the rose variety. When the sides of the hips are soft to the touch, they are ready to harvest. Waiting to harvest until after the first light frost increases the flavor of the hips.  

Now, you may be wondering why you should allow your roses to form hips. Here are some good reasons:

• Ounce for ounce, rose hips contain eight times more vitamin C than oranges,  according to the US Department of Agriculture Food Data Central.
• They are also rich in vitamins A, B, E, and K, as well as other nutrients.
• Rose hips make a nice tea and can be used in making jams, jellies, soups, and even wine.
• Rose hips are a food source for birds during the winter. 
• Their bright red to orange color brightens the winter garden.
• The formation of rose hips on your rose bushes signals the roots of the rose to conserve energy and prepares the bush for winter.

Rose hips can be cooked, dried, or frozen. To prepare ripe rose hips, cut off the blossom and stem ends of the rose hip.  Slice them in half and remove the hairy seeds.  They are now ready to be used for jams or jellies, or dried or frozen for later use. Processing rose hips does reduce the vitamin C content.

Like many other herbs, rosehips have a long history of use.  

• Ancient Chinese, Greeks, Romans and Persians used rose hips for medicine. Pliny the Elder (23-79 BCE) in his book Natural History documented thirty-two remedies made from the rose.  He said, “In the case of a toothache, the seed (rose) is employed in the form of a liniment; it acts also as a diuretic, and is used as a topical application for the stomach.”
• Rose hips were served as a sweetmeat in the Middle Ages and were used as a treatment for chest problems (Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine). 
• Native Americans used the hips of native roses for food and for medicine. 
• Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654), a famous English physician, botanist, and herbalist, details use of rose hips as medicine in his book the Complete Herbal. He said, “The pulp of the hips have a grateful acidity, strengthens the stomach, cools the heat of fever, is pectoral, good for coughs and spitting of blood.” 
• During World War II, when supplies of citrus fruits were cut off, rose hips were collected in England and made into syrup. The syrup, high in vitamin C, was given to children to prevent scurvy. 
• Today, according to WebMD, people use rose hips to boost their immune systems because of the high Vitamin C content. There is some evidence that rose hips may also be an effective treatment for joint pain and stiffness.  Always consult with your health care provider before treating health symptoms with herbs.

So, which roses are best for rose hips? Hybrid tea roses are bred for the beauty of the bud and flower, and are definitely not the best choices if you want robust rose hips. The old fashioned varieties, Rosa canina (dog rose) and Rosa rugosa, are the best producers of rose hips. According to the American Rose Society, the Hansa and the Frau Dagmar Hastrup varieties and other R. rugosas produce the best hips. These old roses are the easiest to care for of all of the rose varieties and are a sure winner if you are looking to harvest your own rose hips. One caution though, if you are planning to use your hips in recipes, do not spray them with chemicals.

Rose hips are the Herb of the Month for The Herb Society of America.  For more information, recipes, and a beautiful screen saver, go to https://www.herbsociety.org/hsa-learn/herb-of-the-month.html 

For a very nice guide to roses, go to The Herb Society of America Essential Guide to Roses. https://www.herbsociety.org/file_download/inline/83784ac3-dac2-4586-8d62-6bbf56a98b74

References:

American Rose Society. Hip! Hip! Hooray!!!  https://www.rose.org/post/2018/04/19/hip-hip-hooray. Accessed 9/14/20.

Bucks, Christine. Hips, hips, hurray! Organic Gardening. Vol. 43, Issue 9. December 1996. Availble from Ebscohost. Accessed 9/14/20.

Chevallier, Andrew. Encyclopedia of medicinal plants.  NY: DK Publishing Inc. 2000. 

Culpepper, Nicholas. Complete herbal. London: Foulsham, 1880. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/culpeperscomplet00culpuoft/page/298/mode/2up Accessed 9/14/20)

Duluth News Tribune. Yardsmart: History and uses of rose hips. https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/lifestyle/4166730-yardsmart-history-and-uses-rose-hips. Accessed 9/13/20.

Fenyvesi, Charles. Reveling in Rosehips: a deliciously delightful harvest. Washington Post, October 20, 1988. Available from ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Accessed 9/11/20.

Hope, Christopher. The medicinal benefits of rose hips. https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/medicinal-benefits-rose-hips. Accessed 9/11/20.

Patel, Seema. Trends in Food Science & Technology. Vol. 63, pg. 29-38. May 2017. Available from Ebscohost. Accessed 9/14/20. 

Pliny the Elder. Natural history of Pliny. London; Henry Bohn, 1853. Volume 3, Pg. 265. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof03plin Accessed 9/16/20.

Toops, Connie. Roses: seven rose species whose hips and thorny thickets provide food and shelter for birds in winter. Birders World. Vol. 18, Issue 6. December 2004. Available from Gale in Context Science database. Accessed 915/20.

US Department of Agriculture. Food Data Central. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/. Accessed 9/15/20

WebMd. Rosehips. https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/rosehip-uses-and-risks#1 Accessed 9/15.20.

Photo Credits: 1) Rosa rugosa ‘Hansa’ hips and flower (Creative Commons, W. Carter); 2) Rose hip tea box (Maryann Readal); 3) Rose hip tea (Maryann Readal); 4) Rose hips (Pixabay)

Medicinal Disclaimer: It is the policy of The Herb Society of America, Inc. not to advise or recommend herbs for medicinal or health use. This information is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as a recommendation or an endorsement of any particular medical or health treatment. Please consult a health care provider before pursuing any herbal treatments.

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Maryann is the Secretary of The Herb Society of America. She is a Master Gardener and a member of The Society’s Texas Thyme Unit in Huntsville, TX. She gardens among the pines in the Piney Woods of East Texas.