Boller Castle Park, Roses

Louise Odier

I paid a visit to the lovely rose park at Boller castle the other day . The roses are beautiful  - of course they are - I love roses. They have a fantastic history and origin, and the scent of roses is the most beautiful scent in the world! 

The name of the rose in the first picture is "Louise Odier" -  and it is a socalled Bourbon rose.
The Bourbon rose derives from a small island close to Madagaskar, Ile de Bourbon (Its name today is Reunion).

It was a tradition upon this small island to plant roses as a hedge between the fields. The roses used for this purpose were the damascene rose "Rose des Quatre Saisons"  and  "Parson's Pink China". The China rose came to Ile de Bourbon in the end of the 1700s from China via India.

The French botanist Breon found in 1817 a plant with very beautiful flowers in one of the hedges upon the island, where the two rose species grew. He moved the rose back to his private garden and sent seeds to the royal gardner in Paris. From these seeds came the rose "Rosier de I'lle de Bourbon". It was a very vigorous plant with shiny pink half-filled flowers. From the damascene roses it had inherited a fine scent and its blooming in autumn.

The Bourbon roses were used for new crossing experiments by the European rose breeders - and in the 1800s several new Bourbon roses  arrived.

One of the most famous Bourbon roses is "Souvenir de la Malmaison". The name is a memory of empress Josephine, who  laid out a magnificent garden at the castle Malmaison outside Paris.


Below: various roses from the garden: 

Isabella Rossellini

Kitty Harkness

Astrid Lindgren

photo Boller Castle, 19 July 2014. grethe bachmann

Potpourri

Small Chinese jars with lid, decorated with golden dragons, red dragons or blue dragons and filled with potpourri create a lovely atmosphere in the winter season. The base in a potpourri is always dried rose-leaves, a large handful in a jar with a little salt in the bottom, then rose-leaves, again a little salt a.s.o. Put lid on and stir in it five times a day for five days. When you take off the lid a faint scent of roses is floating out into the room.

A stronger scent: Put some already salted rose leaves in a jar and pour a few drops geranium oil, some whole cloves, a little crushed nutmeg, some coriander seeds, a cut cinnamon stick and a little crushed violrod (Iris florentina at pharmacy). Stir and let it stand for a week, and it is ready to fill the room with a delicate scent when removing the lid in the daytime.

Fill little home-sewed sachets with dried rose leaves, dried thyme flowers and dried sweet gale leaves. Bind the sachets with silken bands. For your own use hang them on the hangers in the wardrobe or put them in draws or under your pillow. Or use them as a fine little gift for the hostess when you're out on Christmas visits in December.

Turkish Meringues: Common meringue paste , mix it with finely crushed dried rose leaves and bake the meringues as you use to. It looks delicate and give a lovely scent.

Source: Annemarta Borgen, Krydderurtehaven på Knatten, 1992.

photo Boller slot 2008: grethe bachmann