Rose is one of nature's most beautiful creations and is
universally extolled as "Queen of flowers". Rose belongs to the
family Rosaceae and Genus Rosa. The genus Rosa comprises
nearly 120 species and 30,000 cultivars. Rose is a symbol of
love, adoration and innocence and it occupies a prominent
position in the tradition, religious and social culture of every
country in the world. Rose as cut flower has great demand in the
internal as well as export markets. The demand for cut flowers is
increasing day by day with the increasing standard of living,
aesthetic sense and awareness in the people. Rose is the top
ranking cut flower in the flower trade on the basis of average
production and consumption. Rose flowers are diverse having
exquisite shape, size, beautiful colours and delightful fragrance.
In India, roses are grown for cut flowers, for making garlands,
bouquets, in flower arrangement, vase decoration, hair
adornment, for worshipping, to prepare gulkand, pankhuri and
to extract essential oil, attar and rose water (Arora, 1990).
The
use of dried flowers has made it possible to enjoy their beauty
for several years. The beauty and value of the dried flowers are
that they can be kept and cherished for years, which survive the
cold of winter and heat of summer. With growing ecoconsciousness,
the use of more and more nature-friendly things
like these come as a natural choice for decoration. The overall
goal of this study is to produce good quality dried Dutch rose
flowers and to identify the most suitable cultivar for drying.