I admit it, I have roses on my mind. It is almost Valentine's Day! I adore roses, fresh or dried. I delight in making tea with rose petals and hips; crafting with sweet little baby buds of rose; and making body care products with anything rose ~ rose water, rose petals and rose essential oil. With all this rosiness on my mind I wanted to start this week's wonderful blog hop with a little informative herbal tidbit about roses. Of course Summer is a wonderful time to collect and use fresh rose petals yet even during the cold of Winter we can enjoy the bounty of roses by using dried petals and fruits (hips). Roses are helpful for supporting immunity and lung health. They bring a ray of happiness to folks feeling sad in the during gloomy months of late Winter. Plus they are great for crafting with especially with kids who really love the little dried baby rose buds.

Rose Petals and Hips

Rosa spp.

Roses, in their beauty, open the heart and speak of love. Yet they offer so much more than meets the eye. The petals are edible and are lovely added to salads, desserts and even made into rose butter. They also make a tasty tea (use fresh or dried) that I have found to be quite popular with children. All that deliciousness brings with it immune enhancing properties as well as soothing coolness for the urinary system, nervous system and heart. The petals ease cold/flu symptoms and lung congestion increasing lung strength and vitality. Roses are also helpful in cases of PMS and fullness in the pelvis. Emotionally roses sooth broken hearts and aggravated nervous systems. Rose hips, the fruit of a rose, are very high in Vitamin C. They make a tasty sweet sour addition to teas and foods helping to prevent infections. I love to soak the hips in apple juice until they are soft and use them as jam on my kids' PB & J.

Roses are often heavily sprayed so be sure to use organic roses.

More please....

Valentine's Day Crafts:

Using Roses With Kids:

Find this and more information about other amazing herbs in my Materia Medica section.

And now....

Welcome to Natural Living Monday where we share all our natural living tips, tricks, and fun ideas.

Thank you for joining us on Natural Living Monday! I am excited to see the great things you have been doing to live a more natural, whole, holistic life.

Your Hosts:

Amanda from Natural Living Mamma

Katie from Nourishing Simplicity

Angela from Mama Rosemary.

Last weeks most popular posts were:

9 Ways to Waste Less and Save More by A Proverbs 31 Wife

Congratulations on being featured! These amazing posts (and a few others) will be tweeted, shared on my Facebook page and pinned on my Pinterest boards!

Are you ready to link up?

From this week forward the list is in random order!

Here are the rules:Your blog article must fit these categories: sustainable living, homesteading, DIY, herbs, home-made body and skin care, real food (no processed ingredients, Weston A. Price Foundation guidelines are a good place to start to define “real food”), and all things “natural“.

Link back to this week’s blog hop post so that everyone can see the other amazing posts. It is just basic common courtesy.

Show some love! Go check out and see what others have posted. Share the hop and the posts you love!

Not required but I would love it if you would grab the button and share share share!