Roses -- Herb of the Year

The International Herb Association has declared the rose as the herb of the year for 2012.  On Saturday, I attended the Greater Fort Worth Herb Society's very informative talk on Earth-Kind roses (given by Janice Clark, president of the Fort Worth Rose Society).  She showed us photos of beautiful, maintenance free roses, and then gave a bush away as a door prize.

We were also treated to a demo on napkin roses, based on a tutorial from Stone Gable.

Afterwards, Linda Lain,  President of the Herb Society of America, who happened to be visiting the group, reminded everyone that roses really are herbs, bringing out their long history of medicinal and culinary uses. 

Inspired by the beauty of these flowers, I have designed two new rose-scented sachets: the Roses are Red and the Paris Afternoon.

Would you like to make your own satin roses, like the one I used in the Roses are Red?  Follow this simple tutorial. (Special thanks to Jake for holding the ribbon!)

Measure out a length of ribbon.  About 60 inches works for 1 1/2" wide ribbon.  Use a shorter length for smaller roses.  Leave the ribbon attached to the spool, to avoid waste.  Find the midpoint of your measured piece, and fold as pictured.  Fold the ribbon back under.

Continue folding each side of the ribbon under and under again until you are 6 inches away from the end of the cut end.  Hold the last fold, and allow the rest of the ribbon to accordian out.

Pull gently on the end of the ribbon still attached to the spool, gathering up the folds to make rose petals.  If you pull too hard, you risk pulling the rose back through itself.  Adjust the petals so that they look nice.

 To add stability to your rose, sew up and down through the center of the rose a couple of times using a thread color that matches the ribbon.  This makes for a neater, slightly more compact finished product.  Cut the rose off from the spool, and attach to whatever project you made it for.