Alberta Wild Rose

by Leslie
(Alberta, Canada)

I love the scent of the Alberta wild rose.
I live in Alberta Canada and the wild rose is our provincial flower.

I often walk my dogs down near the river here and for a few weeks a year the walk is filled with the heady fragrance of hundreds of these rose bushes blooming.

A little later the rose hips form. They are super high in vitamin C. I don't actually pick them because they make good food for the birds that overwinter.
To enjoy the benefits of these hips try some Rose Recipes

I finally dug a small wild rose up in a ditch that was soon going to be graded. I planted it in the back yard and it is slowly getting bigger over time. Unfortunately I've got it in the shade so it likely won't get as big as the wild ones by the river but it keeps a little wildness in the garden.

I'll have to send you a picture when the snow melts and the roses bloom again.

Carol's Comments
The beautiful roses we grow today are desended from wild roses that bloomed freely.
The oldest rose that we can identify today is Rosa galicca A wild rose that bloomed throughout central and southern Europe and western Asia. They still survive there. When it appeared in the twelth century, the Persians considered it a ""Symbol of love.