Pakistan Gardening Forum

What is the name of the rose used for making Gulkand. My mother once pointed it out to me as a child in a garden and we picked a small shopping bag full which was later used for making a delicious sticky syrupy gulkand.

It was in appearance a bush type rose with smallish white noisette type blooms.

newton wrote:What is the name of the rose used for making Gulkand. My mother once pointed it out to me as a child in a garden and we picked a small shopping bag full which was later used for making a delicious sticky syrupy gulkand.

It was in appearance a bush type rose with smallish white noisette type blooms.

We discussed this topic about desi gulabs a couple of weeks ago. I think the gulaab used for making rose-water is also used for making gul-qand.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2451&p=22370&hilit ... lab#p22370

Thank you very much Farook Sahib

Yes I did read the article and I found it tremendously interesting, I did further research on the desi rose breeder Rudolf Gerchwind and found a nursery ( http://www.rosen-weingart.de/ )in Germany that supplies several of the original breeders hybrid roses including our desi rose and a more rare one named Fernand Krier, a sport of Excelsa with flowers of three different colours on the same plant name red and white and blotched red/white. I am probably now sounding too much indepth but Gruss an Teplitz ( desi rose ) has only been bred and introduced since 1897 then our gulkand and rosewater recipe utilising rosepetals predates that period.

The original question still remains. Which is the rose that has been used for making the delicacy Gulkand.

My suspicion according to the following article is that it Rosa x Damascena. Apparently the rose has been used since biblical times in the middle east (later in india and Bulgaria) to produce rose water. Presumably this would have occurred with the ancient spice route trails from China, Russia, Northern India/Pakistan, Central Asia, Middle East and then onto Europe, as there is also significant history of rose water production in Afghanistan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_%C3%97_damascena

Please excuse me for sounding pedantic but I find the historical perspectives fascinating and just wish to find the different older varieties that can be used for making Gulkand.

My favourite at the moment is Rosa x Damascene, mother must have used the next best substitute by smell, flavour and texture as the correct one was not cultivated in the area. It was during the 1960s in a Lancashire mill town. Predominantly densely packed terraced houses a few of which had the luxury of tiny front gardens.
Ifzaal

The historical discussion is indeed interesting. It must be Rosa damascana then, which is the pink rose with heavenly frragrance in the morning.