ROSES

In the last post about Betty and Carnations, I mentioned my Floral Top 10 but didn't list them. It's somewhat of a moving feast but here's this month's list, not necessarily in priority order:
  • Flowering gum
  • Pansy
  • Wattle (even though I was allergic to it in my childhood)
  • Daffodil
  • Iris
  • Geranium (as long as they are brightly coloured)
  • Bottlebrush
  • Lavender
  • Hydrangea
  • And last but not least, rose.
Not a very adventurous list. But with the exception of roses, I have attempted to grow all of them. I only like roses in other people's gardens. During Melbourne's years of Covid lockdown, Susan and I would walk every day in our suburb and literally smell the roses. I see no point in the odourless ones you buy in shops. The only good reason for their existence given the sharp thorns and the endless pruning that's required is their velvety petals and their extraodinary aroma.

This week, although there are no roses in bloom at the moment, I had two wonderful rose experiences. As many of you know, Haighs chocolates from Adelaide are my favourites. There is no store in Perth so everytime we've gone back to Melbourne, we've stocked up at their store in the beautiful Block Arcade. Amongst my choices on the last trip were some Rose Creams. As they say on their website:

Since 1989, generations of Haigh's chocolate lovers have enjoyed this iconic rose-flavoured fondant cream, encased in our rich dark chocolate, and finished by hand with a beautiful crystallized rose petal. 

Ecstacy! Particularly when paired with a hand crafted rose liqueur from Bosnia & Herzegovina. On the second last day of my tour of the area in 2023 we swerved out of Bosnia, through Republika Srpska, and then back into Bosnia on the way to the Croatian border. On the way, we drove past the largest irrigated field in Bosnia - 30 kilometres. Now only 30% of it is under cultivation because of the impact of outside businesses undercutting prices.
The crops are mainly grapes, apples and oranges and we called into a small winery, Vinarija Berak, for lunch. The men of the house looked after the wine (chardonnay, zilayka, rose, vranac) and the lady of the house made liqueurs (carob, cherry, kiwi and rose). I managed to safely get a small elegant bottle of the rose liqueur back to Australia and had the final mouthful to accompany the Haigh's chocolate. A fabulous combination of colour, fragrance, texture and taste. 



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