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Home > In the Garden > Gifts From Your Rose Garden

Gifts from Your Rose Garden

The holidays are a great time to use roses from your garden. You're probably thinking, "What is she talking about? My rose garden is all frozen!" Yes, I know it's winter. But, you'd be surprised at how many gift ideas can come from your rose garden -- even when everything is frozen outside.

I've highlighted some of my favorite gift ideas below, ranging from the very easy to those that take a bit more work. And, if you're creative, I'm sure you'll think of even more (no, you don't have to be Martha Stewart to be creative!).

Ornaments, Package Decorations, Wreaths

Ingredients: rose hips, dried roses, red rose canes (with thorns removed), hot glue gun, evergreen boughs, forms (styrofoam, etc.) or wreaths.

What do you do? Go out into the garden and pick lots of big, colorful rose hips. In early winter, rose hips still have lots of color, and may still be plump rather than dried. Of course, the red ones match the holiday colors the best. While you're outside, cut some red rose canes. The roses in our garden with red rose canes include: Therese Bugnet and Rosa glauca.

If you were thinking ahead, you picked and dried lots of rose buds and blossoms from your garden. If not, you can purchase these from any craft or florist shop.

O.K., now plug in your hot glue gun and get ready to have some fun!

Here's a list of some of the gifts that you can turn the above ingredients into:

• Ball ornaments: completely cover a styrofoam ball with green moss attached with hot glue. Then, cover the moss with either dried rose buds or rose hips, again using hot glue gun to attach buds or hips to ball. The balls can be hung by themselves with ribbon or raffia, or glued into terracotta planting pots with a bit of ribbon to dress it up.

• Package decorations: wire together a few small evergreen boughs along with some red rose canes, each about 6-inches long. Attach rose hips and small pine cones with hot glue to the top of the boughs so that they cover up the wire. I really like to use cedar boughs for these decorations. They smell great and last a long time.

• Wreaths: Cover a styrofoam wreath with green moss, then cover the moss with rose hips or rose buds attached with hot glue. Add a gold ribbon for extra color and decoration. Or attach a decorative grouping of rose hips, rose buds and pine cones to a corner of a grapevine wreath. Loosely wrap a ribbon around the wreath, along with a bow for extra decoration and color.

Edible Gifts

Homemade rose hip or petal jams and jellies make great gifts. You can dress up the jars with rose hips and ribbons to make them more festive.

Homemade rose hip tea is also a wonderful gift. Crush dried rose hips and place them in a decorative jar. Attach a recipe for making the tea.

For more ideas, see our recipes for making jellies and jams.

Rose Plants

If your roses have sent out suckers and you need to cut them back, be sure to save a few to give away as gifts. When digging up suckers, save as much of the roots as you can. Then, cut the top of the canes back to about 6-inches high. Pot up the new plant into a 2 or 3-gallon container using a good potting soil along with a spoonful of a slow-release fertilizer. Keep the newly planted rose moist and protected from heat and direct sun for the first few weeks. Then, move them into full sun, making sure they're watered every day. Make sure the new rose is well established before you give it away. This will probably take a few months.

Giving away roses from your garden is a great way to get your friends and relatives interested in roses and gardening. And, if the rose has sentimental value, it's worth even more to the recipient.

If it's too cold to give the roses to your friends for the winter holidays, give them a gift certificate for the rose to tide them over until spring.

These are just a few ideas for gifts from your rose garden. Our roses give us so much enjoyment, and it's fun to share this with our friends and family. Homemade or homegrown gifts are always special -- especially when they're from your own garden. Have fun and be creative!