Inside the carriage a richly dressed, pretty young girl of fourteen is delightedly sniffing a bottle of perfume. A carriage following behind is laden with fragrant pillows, flagons of rose water and rose perfume, sacks of rose pot pourri, boxes of rose candles, rose scented snuff, rose pastilles, rose scented wines, dozens of assorted smaller bottles of rose cosmetics and medicines, as well as the famed Provins rose sauce for roast meats. The lady is the Archduchesse Marie Antoinette of Austria, en route to the royal court and her wedding to the fifteen year old Dauphin of France, later to be crowned Louis XVI. It is 1770, and like thousands of other travellers, she has detoured to the town of Provins fifty kilometres south-east of Paris, a town famed from the thirteenth centur for the summer glory of its rose fields and the array of superlative products made from its scented harvests of petals. Marie Antoinette’s future wedding bed would be covered entirely with those same rose petals supplied as a gift by the town.

Unlike most roses, the fragrance of the Apothecary Rose Rosa gallica ‘Officinalis’ is fully retained and even intensified after drying. So too are its herbal properties. The petals have astringent and tonic properties. Avicenna claimed to have cured tuberculosis with rose jelly, and many similar cures, some of them well attested, were claimed over the centuries for the use of honey of roses, rose conserve, or rose jelly. The physic garden of every monastery contained this precious rose. The dried petals were also used to make a tea or a syrup to alleviate the symptoms of the common cold, to treat hysteria, and for inflammation of the digestive tract.

Prepared as a stronger decoction, it was used for minor cuts and abrasions, as a compress for strains, as a gargle for sore throats, and to make lip salves. Modern French herbalists recommend handfuls of rose petals added to a daily hot bath to relieve the stiffness of rheumatism. Maurice Mességué, leading herbalist of France in the twentieth century, was a strong advocate of rose lotions and rosewater to maintain a wrinkle free complexion. Both the name ‘Apothecary’s Rose’ and ‘Officinalis’ refer to its use as a legitimate medicinal herb listed in the Pharmacopeia of many countries .

R. gallica ‘Officinalis’ originated in the Near East, where it was the ‘Rose of Miletus’, an ancient city that flourished on the shores of the Aegean Sea in Ionia. It is believed to have been taken to France by two Crusaders, Thibaud de Champagne ( hence its French name ‘Champagne Rose’ ) and Robert de Brie. The first record of this rose in England was made by a monk of St Mary’s Abbey in York in 1368., but he considered it to be already ancient in England. It became the symbol of the House of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses, becoming known as the ‘Red Rose of Lancaster’. The opposing House of York took as its symbol the ancient white semi-double Alba rose R. alba ‘Semi-plena’ which also finds use as a perfumery rose.The fully double white flowered form became the Jacobite Rose. The ancient and lovely pale pink, striped and splashed with deep pink, Damask rose ‘York and Lancaster’ R. damascena ‘Versicolor’ became the symbol of the peace.

The true ‘Apothecary Rose’ is a beautiful sight in full flower, forming a thicketing shrub to around 1.2 metres with leathery, dark green foliage and masses of clear crimson-red, semi-double flowers with bright golden stamens. A crop of red heps follow in autumn. It gave rise to a charming sport in 1581, now known as ‘Rosa Mundi’ R. gallica ‘Versicolor’, identical in every way except that the prolific blooms are gaily striped with pale pink, crimson, and white, so that they look hand painted. It was named for Fair Rosamond, the mistress of King Henry II of England. She was reputedly murdered on the orders of the Queen in 1176, and Henry II is said to have placed this rose on her grave every year until his death.

R. gallica ‘Officinalis’ was the supreme colonial rose. It accompanied the Pilgrim Fathers to America. There it acquired the additional name of the ‘Offley Rose’. Reputedly, the wife of General Nelson refused to leave her home in Yorktown, despite the imminent approach of British troops during the American Revolution and the understandably high anxiety of her house staff, until a soldier dug up her precious ‘Apothecary Rose’ which she transported to her new home at Offley near Richmond. There was a woman who knew her mind and got her priorities correct! It was also one of the very first roses to reach Australia and survives along old roads, on early farms, and on lonely graves.

From this you will gather that the Apothecary Rose can live very well without our attentions once it is established. It requires no pruning, although an occasional cutback to maintain shape or remove damage is in order. Mine contain wren’s nests providing continuity of accomodation for select families from year to year, confirming my lack of activity with secateurs. Yet the bushes flower wonderfully. Like all the old summer flowering classes of roses, the ‘Apothecary Rose’ flowers on the previous year’s wood. Pruning in late winter is reserved for the repeat flowering classes of roses which all flower on new season’s wood. If you need to prune the old rose classes, do it immediately after flowering. Winter pruning will result in few flowers the following summer.

The old roses are very long lived. Their life can be measured in centuries, and they have great drought resistance after their first few years of growth. They are not immune to disease or insect attack, but are often so robust in habit that they recover with great ease. They fit perfectly into an organic garden. The only sprays I have ever used are a homemade garlic and chile pepper spray when aphids are present, and a foliar spray of seaweed extract which provides a growth boost.

Today the favoured perfumery roses of France also include the Alba roses such as ‘Semi-plena’, the Cabbage Rose R. centifolia, and the ancient ‘Quatre Saisons’ or ‘Autumn Damask. In Bulgaria and Iran, both famous for attar of rose production, Damask roses are favoured. Ancient ‘Ispahan’ and ‘Gloire de Guilan’ are favoured in Iran, and in the rose growing valleys of Bulgaria, the ‘Rose of Kazanlik’, sometimes called ‘Trigintipetala’, is the favourite perfumery rose. Other long preferred roses for herb gardens include the Gallica roses ‘Cardinal de Richelieu’ (1840), ‘Tuscany’ or ‘Old Velvet’ (c.1596), and two shorter growing Gallicas for the small garden, purest pink ‘Belle Isis’ (c.1845) and the almost thornless, parma violet ‘Belle de Crécy’.

Rose hips are a source of Vitamin C and rose hip syrup has traditionally been given to children. The Eglantine Rose R. eglanteria syn. R. rubiginosa, is a long time favourite for this use. More recently, single cultivars of Rugosa roses such as ‘Alba’, ‘Rubra’, ‘Typica’, ‘Scabrosa’, ‘Honeysuckle’, and shell pink ‘Frau Dagmar Hastrup’ are grown for this purpose as they have abundant, huge, apple-rose scented red hips. The Rugosa roses come with the added blessing of a mixed carnation and rose fragrance. They flower reliably for much of the year, have excellent autumn colouring, tolerate a very wide range of temperatures and soils, and are the closest roses can come to a guarantee of being totally disease free. The large, double, cherry red ‘Rose A Parfum de ‘Hay’ has a glorious rich fragrance and is used commercially in pot pourri.

All these antique herbal roses are available from specialist Australian rose nurseries. They can be planted bare-rooted in winter, and throughout the year if supplied in pots. Well rotted compost can be forked through the soil before planting, but allow the plants to establish before additional feeding commences. They need full sun, but the Albas are the most shade tolerant group of all roses.

While the ancient herbal roses flower once a year, so too do camellias, lilacs and most of our treasured shrubs. The Gallica roses make dense, weatherproof, virtually foolproof hedges to 1.0-1.2m. Even the smallest garden can accomodate them, and they will do very well when grown in large pots. They look delightful, too, grown in herb and potager gardens, as centrepieces of beds, to mark garden corners as they were in the 17th century, or to line either side of a garden alley. Imagine the effect of an alley of upright cherry or crabapple trees interplanted with the gaily striped ‘Rosa Mundi’ in full spring flower. The herbal Damask, Alba, and Centifolia Roses are graceful taller shrubs and are ideally used as a focal planting, or as a backdrop, filling the air with the old rose fragrance.

Before the petals drop, harvest them after they have dried in the morning and spread out thinly on an old sheet or flyscreen out of sunlight in an area with good air movement so that they retain their colour and fragrance. When the petals are crisp dried, store them in moisture proof containers for use in rose petal teas ( they can be mixed with delicate green tea ), and pot pourri.

To create your own effective Rose Petal Lipsalve used for chapped lips, warm 250 g of freshly gathered herbal rose petals after the dew has dried. Warm 250g pure lard in a glass or ceramic bowl in the sun until it is softened. Add the rose petals, then allow them to macerate in a cool, dark place, covered with a clean cloth, for a week. Heat the lard very gently indeed until it is just liquid ( a water bath is ideal ), then strain the mixture through a fine cloth, squeezing the last of the mixture through a fine cloth. Pour the salve into a small jar and label. Rose Botanical Vinegar was a standby of the 19th century beauty. It was diluted 1:10 and splashed on the face and body after cleansing to refine the pores and provide an acid skin mantle. Use 21/2 cups of the dried petals and combine it with one litre of cider vinegar, place in a jar sealed with a plastic cap, and stand it in the sun for 2-3 weeks. Strain the contents and allow to stand for one week. Decant off the rose vinegar and bottle.