The rose is the herb of the year for 2012 and when folks find this out they invariably say one (or more) of several things to me…
“…I didn’t know roses were herbs”, or
“…roses are so hard to grow”, or
“…I didn’t know roses were edible”, etc.
All of this is proof positive that the point of the IHA’s (International Herb Association) Herb of the Year program, that of Herbal Education, is working! Especially since no one goes away from a conversation with me about the herbal aspects of the rose without a better understanding of just how edible, useful, and healthful roses are, as well as, just how easy roses are to grow.
This rose bush is just another example of how easy roses are to grow. This rose, whose name I do not know (but if I had to guess -it might be “Graham Thomas”), has been growing in a dirt lot behind a liquor store and a taco shop at the corner of Warmlands & East Vista Way, in Vista, CA for almost a decade. When it rains, the area this rose is growing in puddles up but other than that there is no water nearby. The area is riddled with gophers and gopher holes and the weedy grasses and mustard growing around it hides a shocking amount of trash. The bush gets no fertilizer, never gets pruned, has no irrigation and yet it grows, it blooms and the fragrance is incredible, year after year. What can be easier than that?
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