The Valley of roses

The Valley of Roses is one of the biggest producers of rose oil in the world. The soil and the climate in this region are quite suitable for the roses. The conditions in Kazanlak proved to be more favourable for the cultivation of the rose than those in its own country of origin - Tunisia. This is specifically valid for the rainfalls. The air humidity, cloudiness and precipitation in May and June contributed to obtain roses yielding high percentage of oil.

The Rose Valley is not a geographical name – it is just a notion, associated with the location where the Bulgarian oil-bearing rose grows. The valley altitude is 710m at his highest point Klisoura. The climate in the Rose Valley is transitional between moderately continental and transitional continental. The rose plants usually start coming into leaf around March 10, when the air temperature settles at over 5º C.

The rainfalls in the Rose Valley are heaviest in the spring, with a peak in June. Daily rainfalls are not abundant, yet the rainy days are many. This kind of weather prolongs the flowering period, suppresses oil evaporation, at the same time increasing the yield of oil and its quality. The mean monthly precipitation in May and June is usually between 80 and 100 litres per square meter.
The absence of intensive sunshine prevents undesired liberation of the volatile aromatic ingredients from the flowers. Every five to seven years there occurs a sudden warming during the harvesting time, which hampers gathering, storing and distillation. To avoid the adverse effect of the winds on the rose bushes, they were always planted in hedge-rows.

The Trip of the rose

According to a legend, returning soldiers of Alexander Macedon’s garrisons brought the first roses to Thrace from the region of the town Kashan in Persia through Syria and Damascus. Bulgarian scientists presume that the cultivation of the roses was introduced to the region round Kazanlak, a town founded by the Turks in 1420. The roses were reportedly brought from Tunisia by a Turkish judge, who had beautiful vast gardens planted with fragrant roses. This is the trip of the rose.

After the developing of this industry in the Middle Ages and inventing the double and multiple distillation, the Bulgarian rose oil soon made a name for its superior quality. The demand for this oil of unsurpassed quality has not faded until today. The Bulgarian producers of the time became aware of the fact that they were manufacturing a new and precious product.

Distillation of rose flowers for liberating oil, a technology unknown anywhere in the world so far was welcomed by the new industries of perfumery and cosmetics that were flourishing in Western and Central Europe at that time. The Bulgarian rose oil was recognized in the world market for its superior quality and the cultivation and processing of roses developed as the first Bulgarian industry.

Bulgarian rose oil

An original Bulgarian technology for rose planting was gradually developed and adopted as a general practice in the past. It was called kesme. No other cultivation method has been able to preserve the character of the rose almost unchanged for over three centuries. This fact explains why there were no attempts at cultivating other rose varieties in the Rose Valley. The technology proved to be so good that rose bushes were even

exported to the Russian and the Turkish empires of the time. Distilling equipments for rose oil were imported from Persia and Tunisia. Striving to obtain rose water of better quality and of higher alcohol content, in the course of the time people came to employ double and then multiple distillation. This was a unique Bulgarian innovation in the technology of rose oil which made it essentially different from the original one.

The multiple distillation technology was tested and adopted on the analogy of method of stilling rakia (a kind of Bulgarian brandy). Rose water of higher alcohol content was obtained and, what is more important, the rose oil was produced. The major types of oil-bearing roses used to be cultivated for the purposes of attar extraction: the pink and the white rose. Until 1970, the pink rose plantations
brought almost 90 per cent of the total output. White roses were preferred for planting in higher altitudes. It is generally accepted that there are more than 5000 varieties of roses, yet only a few of them exhibit that market fragrance which is sought by perfumers. The Bulgarian oil-bearing rose has been cultivated in the Rose Valley for more than 300 years now.