Garden variety roses are the best for cooking purposes.
By Edythe Preet, Contributor
One Sunny June afternoon several years ago, I stood on a Wicklow cliff overlooking the Irish Sea. All around me, mounds of wild roses covered the ground. No genetically crafted sterile blooms were these. Each delicate flower — and there were hundreds upon hundreds crowding the canes that tumbled in every direction — had but a few scarlet petals surrounding a central golden pompom. Dust motes danced on slanted sunbeams, a heady rose scent suffused the air, and I understood why the rose is called The Queen of Flowers.