Roses
Legend has it that the feeling of love caused the spread of the gentle rose flower over the whole world. And it looks like the rose’s love message found the most fertile lands to grow in the region of Kazanluk in Bulgaria. The mild and sheltered climate of the valley situated between the Balkan Range and the Sredna Gora Mountains proved to be perfect for the Rose type brought from Persia - ‘Damascina’. In the course of time the region became known as “The Valley of the Roses”. For 400 years now it has developed as the most important growing and producing area of the rose plant.
However love was soon not the only reason for growing roses - the aromatic and also valuable oil produced from Bulgarian roses covers meanwhile about 70% of the global demand. Even 300 years ago the price of the rose oil was measured with the sixfold amount of gold. Nowadays a kilo of the rose oil costs more that 3000 Euro.
This price is no surprise to those who know the time and efforts needed to produce the aesthetic fragrance. It takes 1400 rose blossoms to produce only 1gram of the essence and about 3 tonne of blossoms to produce 1 kilo.
To get quantity and quality together the rose harvest starts in the early morning because roses keep their full fragrance only when covered by the morning dew. From mid of May till end of June the roses are picked from 4 a.m. till 10 a.m. in the morning. When the sun starts burning the rose earnings go to the distillation devices and are heated to 120? for 3 hours so that the oil and the so called rose water are extracted. The rose water is not as expensive as the oil but also very aromatic and recommended as a skin cleansing lotion.
Once in the mid of May the fragrance of roses can be smelled over the Valley the people of Kazanluk and Karlovo start eagerly preparing their famous Rose Festival. The rose harvest has involved ritual festivities for centuries. Nowadays many new touristic attractions become part if the Festival - the election of a ‘rose princess’, concerts, flower bazaars, carnival processions. Following the traditions on the first day of the harvest young men and women enter the rose fields singing and dancing and pick the first rose blossoms to put it into their hairs.
In the Museum of Roses in Kazanluk one can find plenty of information about the old ways and new technologies of gaining rose oil and about different methods of rose breeding. The small shop of the museum offers the well known rose souvenirs: the small flasks with rose essence and rose water.