White Lotus Aromatics Newsletter - White Rose, Dec. 5, 2001
NewsNeNwsNNewsletter Archive ewsl
White Rose
Dear Friends-
It has been some weeks since I have had a chance to sit down and create a newsletter.
It is one of my favorite activities but one needs to have time to do it and
recently my attention has been engaged with taking care of the gardening business
as well as many details of the expanding essential oil enterprise. I have also
been waiting for something very special which has now arrived-the White Rose
Absolute from Bulgaria. Many of you already know that I have a deep interest
in direct sourcing of aromatic absolutes, essential oils, CO2 extracts, etc.
I also
enjoy getting directly involved with sponsoring special projects when feasible.
Many things have to come into alignment for such an aromatic adventure to happen
but when it does, it is a matter of endless delight both personally and for
many of you who enjoy some of the out of the ordinary things which can arise
from such projects.
My first venture in the direction of sponsoring projects came several years
ago when the extraction of pink lotus blossoms for the concrete and absolute
took place in South India. This was followed by the extraction of white lotus
blossoms near Madurai and blue lotus blossoms near Maharastra. During this time
I also became involved with directly sponsoring the distillation of traditional
attars in North India as many of the old ways are in danger of being lost and
I along with my fragrance mentor, Ramakant Harlalka felt that the only way we
could maintain high
standards based upon ancient perfumery traditions was to directly engage a respected
distiller of Kannauj to make attars specially for us. Much has already been
written on the subject and can be found on the web site.
The White Rose Project in Bulgarian was a natural progession from the projects
that went before. In August of 2000 I began interacting with Vassil Loutchev
who represented a respected distillery in Bulgaria and as our conversations
evolved the thought came in my mind regarding doing a project with the much
less known white rose, Rosa alba. Over the years I had encountered descriptions
of the white rose of Bulgaria, its use as a hedging material for the pink rose,
Rosa damascena, its hardy nature, its delicate sweet, rosacous honey odor, etc.
Ernest Guenther also mentioned it in passing in his noble 6 volume work on essential
oils. Through Vassil and his distilling associates I came to know that the white
rose while nce widely grown in Bulgaria, was now considerably rarer and only
one region of the Valley of the Roses had significant amounts of this rose of
sublime beauty. One of the reasons it had lost favor was that compared to the
pink rose the yield of essential oil and absolute was roughly half. This had
earned it the name of the "dry" rose. And of course this made it a much more
expensive material to produce and sell. This only peaked my interest further.
I had already been through the experience of sponsoring projects with the lotus
which were also very expensive from the
production side of things as well as having to create a market for them once
extracted so I did not feel daunted by the prospect of supporting a project
concerning the white rose. The very name "white rose" resonated deep in my heart
as did everything to do with the lotus so I asked him if he would be willing
to get the project rolling. He kindly agreed.(People like Vassil are a true
treasure in the aromatic world. They have insight and knowledge into the possibilities
within the country and can practially arrange such things. Without his help
and the cooperation of farmers and the extractors this project could not have
fructified)
One of the first things that needed to be done was to work with the farmers
growing white rose to assure we would have enough white roses for t he following
year(2001) extraction. A nice sum of money needed to be advanced to them to
secure the contract for enough Rosa alba blossoms for the following year to
make 5 kilos of absolute. Here we are are talking of roses in terms of many
thousands of kilos. For those of you who have carefully harvested roses from
your own garden for potpourri or rose water it is apparent that the human endeavor
that is required for such operations defies the imagination because every single
rose has to be hand plucked.But by good fortune, the man in charge of the distillery
was able to travel to the area
where the white roses thrive, and procure the contract for the 2001 harvest.
The result is that by this co-ordinated effort the 1st kilo of White Rose Absolute
has been converted from concrete to absolute and during the remainder of this
year and over the course of the next few months I will have the remaining 4
kilos of absolute prepared.
In a future newsletter I will try to outline in a general sense what are the steps in bringing such a project into manifestation because I firmly believe that what has come into being through the several projects I have been directly involved in can be done by many others if the enthusiasm and practical dedication is there. I stongly feel that many many incredible distillations and extractions are yet to be done both in the areas where one may be personally living and in other parts of the world. It is a meeting of the ideal and the practical because one must not only have the dream but must also be willing to commit themselves financially to bringing their aspirations into manifestation. OK. Here is a bit of information I could discover about the White Rose. I think there is much much more to be uncovered but I wanted to get a bit of information out there so you might come to know a bit about this rose, its history, symbolism and aroma. The opening quotation concerning roses in general is priceless.
Flowers are the messengers of our most sacred feelings. They have a language
of their own. As gifts they are capable of expressing all shades of feelings
and passions. The rose is especially noted, as it is the archetypal flower.
The rose has endured as metaphor through the ages, surviving a partial death
for at least eleven centuries in the West. The decline can be attributed to
the difficulty and ambivalence of applying its meaning to new religious beliefs,
primarily Christianity. Eventually the rose ended up as a predominant symbol
of Christianity, and the Virgin herself became known as La Rosa Mystica or the
Mystic Rose. The rose has deep meanings that cannot be destroyed they can simply
be redirected. The rose encompasses a magnificent territory that must be experienced
first hand. Consequently, when we attempt to construct a map of the territory
we leave much of it uncharted. The rose transcends a specific meaning to a given
culture and a given time. The rose has been prized for thousands of years throughout
a wide range of cultures, and has come to symbolize many different things. We
can search for
its meanings through mythology, religion, art and literature. Cirlot stated
that the meaning of roses can be attributed to the number of petals and the
colors, to this I would like to add fragrance. Our sense of smell is one of
our deepest senses. Fragrance is the secret substance that embodies the true
nature of the rose. Sartre once described the spiritual essence of scent as,
"A vaporized body which has remained completely itself but which has become
a volatile spirit." David Austin has said that scent is the "soul of the rose".
It is something that we can not hold in our hands, which is always shifting
and changing. Jack Goody states that applying meanings to flowers came from
the East. Meaning can be highly subjective but some thoughts are universally
accepted.
http://www.rosegathering.com/meaning.html
Rosa alba description
White Rose ,Rosa alba Semi-Plena is a rose of great, though simple, beauty.
Each flower is a 3 in. bowl of silky, pure white petals which open wide to reveal
a boss of golden stamens. There is a sweet and penetrating scent of outstanding
quality, and it is no surprise that Alba Semi-Plena is gown in Bulgaria to this
day to produce extracts for perfume. Much of this rose's charm lies in its foliage
and general bearing as a garden shrub. Alba Semi-Plena will form a gently arching,
vase-shaped plant 7 or 8 ft. in height and approximately 5 to 6 ft. in spread.
Its graceful, pale green canes are clothed in soft blue-green foliage, which
make an ideal backdrop for the elegantly poised flowers. Alba Semi-Plena is
a robust and resilient rose, generally free of disease and able to tolerate
extremes of cold and neglect that would devastate other varieties. It makes
a fine candidate for use at the back of the mixed border, or in open woodland
settings,especially along north-facing walls, where few roses are likely to
thrive.
http://www.country-lane.com/yr/plena.htm
History ROSES AND LILIES
An old tradition states that the Romans named the most north-western target
of their imperialism Albion because of the white roses found growing in Britannia,
but it is not in fact certain whether the Rosa alba was present when the Romans
arrived or if they imported it. In any case, throughout the Medieval period
the white rose was available as an English garden favourite. Eleanor of Provence,
who became the wife of Henry III in 1236, used a white rose as her emblem, and
her son Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) took as an emblem a rose with almost gold-coloured
petals and a green stem. Edmund, Earl of Lancaster (died 1296), a younger son
of Eleanor and Henry, adopted a red rose, the Rosa gallica, following his marriage
to Blanche of Artois (died 1302), granddaughter of Louis VIII of France, whose
emblem it was; and thus the red rose became the emblem of the house of Lancaster.
Red roses, like white, were to be found in England throughout the Medieval
period,and were no new introduction at the time of the marriage of of Blanche
of Artois and Edmund "Crouchback" in 1275. Richard, Duke of York (died 1460),
used the white rose as a favourite badge, and it was taken up by his favorite
son Edward IV (reigned 1461-83). The red rose was evidently not used as a badge
by the Lancastrian king, Henry VI (reigned 1422-61), who was supplanted by his
kinsman Edward IV. The catchy title "Wars of the Roses," for the intermittent
civil and dynastic conflict of the 1450's to the 1480's between the red rose
of Lancaster and the white rose of York, was not invented until the eighteenth
century,but the idea went back at least to the "Crowland Chronicle," which was
completed in the 1480's, and the two roses as symbols of the rival dynastieswas
given a wider audience in the Temple Garden scene in Shakespeare's Henry VI,
Part I, Act II, scene iv. The first Tudor king, Henry VII (reigned 1485-1509),
employed the propaganda symbol of a combined red and white rose to represent
himself as unifier of the warring factions of Lancaster and York. The Tudor
rose remains a very familiar symbolic flower.
The third rose generally cultivated in late medieval England, along with the red and white, was the damask rose. It willprobably never be known if the pink rose of Damascus was brought to England by merchants, monks, pilgrims, or crusaders. Along with cultivated roses mention must be made of the native wild rose, the Rosa rubiginosa, known also as the sweet briar or eglantine, which has a lovely smell, is a good climber for walls and fences, and was used in the making of mead and variuos medicines. Actually, Medieval cultivated roses would look fairly wild to the modern eye, accustomed as it is to the products of scientific breeders.
The flowers of Medieval cultivated roses were smaller, more open, and more
fragile than today's roses, and they were more delicate of fragrance. The Medieval
rose plants were more like rambling bushes than modern roses, and the thorns
were longer and more plentiful, an even more noticeable presence. It was when
the rose petals were dried and powdered that they had the most powerful fragrance,and
it was usually the petals of the red rose that were used in the making of rose
water, rose oil, rose preserves, petal garnishes, and rose sugar. It was the
custom to employ roses as symbols of the Holy Spirit, and to scatter them in
churches for this reason. The practice was associated with festivals when roses
would have been in bloom, such as that of John the Baptist(24 June), St. Peter
(29 June), and the moveable feasts of Whitsun and Corpus Christi (which fell
in May or June).
The lily ranked with the rose as a special flower, and to the Medieval mind
roses and lilies were the devotional flowers without rival. The lily was associated
with the Virgin Mary. The Venerable Bede (died 735), the glory of Northumbrian
monastic culture, knew the Madonna lily as an emblem of the Virgin Mary, the
white petals representing her bodily purity and the golden anthers the light
of her soul. The lily was an ancient fertility symbol, and it suited the Mother
of God. An association of the Virgin Mary with The Song of Songs also suggested
itself to many Medieval minds: "I am the Rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys."
The Biblical Rose of Sharon may have been the crocus or the narcissus, and the
lilyof the valleys could have been the Palestine anemone, but that is of no
importance for Medieval symbolism. The lily represented purity, innocent beauty,
and chastity, a neat parallel for the virgin birth of Christ. It is worth recalling
as well, that the central image of The Song of Songs is that of a garden. This
means that the example of sensual literature most widely known to Medieval people
was centered upon a garden. -
Pleasures and Pastimes in Medieval England. Compton Reeves. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1998.
"As is so often the case with roses, the precise origin of the Alba group
is much debated; possibly R. canina x R. damascena, or R. corymbifera x R. gallica,
or . . . ? Albas typically make large, healthy shrubs with fragrant white or
light pink blossoms, usually in few-flowered clusters. They have particular
associations with the Middle Ages and castle gardens. 'Great Maiden's Blush',
`Semiplena', `Jeanne d'Arc', `Konigin von Danemark', `Pompon Blanc Parfait'."
- Brent C. Dickerson odinthor@csulb.edu, author, "The Old Rose Advisor" The
Albas, one of the major groups of ancient roses, is another Gallica hybrid,
possibly crossed centuries ago with a Damask. The Romans brought Alba roses
to Britain. The delicate pale pink,
blush and white Albas, with their bluish-green leaves, are probably the most
cold hardy of the Old Garden Roses. They thrive under the most adverse conditions,
are quite shade tolerant, very disease resistant and easy to grow. Albas are
hardy shrubs with exceptional form in habit and flower. All these features not
withstanding, only a limited variety of Albas are offered commercially. They
bloom once a year in spring. Flowers tend to be white or a variation thereof.
The blooms have a delicate appearance, and sit well on a durable, tough plant.
Fragrance is normally excellent, and foliage is a gray-green tint which complements
the softness of the flowers and contrasts nicely with darker evergreens. Albas
tend to be larger shrubs, many growing six feet tall and wide or more.
http://www.rkdn.org/roses/Classes.asp?ID=(12) Images http://www.country-lane.com/yr/plena.htm
http://w3.goodnews.net/~kkrugh/rose/alba_semiplena.htm
Stories Legends and Myths Connected with White Rose
http://www.planetmonk.com/wilde/happyprince/nightingale.html
nightingale and the rose by Oscar Wilde
http://snowbird.virtualave.net/rose.html
Cherokee White Rose
http://sheowolf.com/rose.html
legend of the Cherokee Rose
White Rose Symbolism
The white rose is linked with the Virgin Mary (who is the Mystical Rose of Heaven,
the rose without thorns) and was a medieval symbol of viginity. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/4696/rose.html
LOYALTY, PENETRATING AND PLATONIC LOVE. ABLE TO CAPTIVATE SECRET THOUGHT, LOVE
STRONGERTHAN DEATH. IN ENGLAND THERE IS A SAYING ABOUT THE WHITE ROSE REFERRING
TO THE SUB ROSA, "DEATH TO HIM WHO UNDER MY SECRECY BETRAYS HIS OATH." IN SCOTLAND
WHEN THE WHITE ROSE BLOOMED IN AUTUMN IT WAS SEEN AS A TOKEN OF EARLY MARRIAGE.
THE ROSE OF CONFESSION, THE BRIDAL ROSE, THE ROSE OF
SERVITUDE. CAN BE OTHERWORLDLY.
http://www.rosegathering.com/symbols.html
White Rose Absolute
Physical and Olfactory Properties-
Physical-Lovely transparent golden hued slightly viscous oil
Olfactory-soft, warm radiant honey-sweet roseaceous bouquet. Very smooth,
clear and well rounded. Enfolded within this elegant harmonius chord is a hint
of a green note which speaks of the white rose blossom nestled amidst the surrounding
foliage. The top and heart notes blend seamlessly with each other with the roseaceous
notes coming a bit more to the forefront as the drydown unfolds. The radiance
of this absolute is not overt. It quietly grows in the environment in which
it is revealed filling the heart with a quiet sweetness and joy.