The wild form of the Rose - the queen of flowers - grows in big bushes on scanty soil, on the planes and in the mountains. The Wild Rose is made up of pink flowers and bright red rose hips. This plant is an ideal nesting and feeding place for birds. It is also used as a medicinal plant. Weleda obtains the Wild Rose species of Rosa mosqueta, Rosa rubiginosa and Rosa damascena from partners in Latin America, Germany and Turkey for use in the Wild Rose Facial and Body Care lines.

The Rosehips can be harvested from the end of February to March in the Chilean mountains. The fruits are dried, peeled and pressed to obtain the valuable seed oil, which contains unsaturated fatty acids. Weleda is only sourcing the Rosa Mosqueta oil made of seeds from certified organic wild collection. Our annual volume is 8 – 10 tons of oil.

The green leaves of the Wild Rose are also used. The leaves of the Rosa rubiginosa plant are harvested from the end of May to the end of June in the German Tauber Valley by our long term partner Reinhold Schneider. The earlier the harvest takes place, the sooner the plants will grow new shoots again. These shoots are cut early in the morning between five to nine o’clock. They are then quickly distilled in order to avoid the essential oil from evaporating. The essential oil is then sent to Weleda where the tincture is made. 

Two of our partners, Sebat and Ercetin, in the Turkish Taurus Mountains grow organic Rosa damascena. Over 300 small-scale farmers pick the rose petals and produce essential rose oil, rose absolue and rose wax. Weleda and a Turkish consultant have trained the farmers in organic farming, as their expertise in this area has significantly dwindled in the era of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

In order to ensure our demand further, we currently set up a new organic cultivation project with one of our partners in Bulgaria for Rosa damaszena.

Would you like to know more about our projects? Click here to see a short video on our rose cultivation projects in Chile and Turkey.

-> video (Flashplayer 8)
-> video (AVI)


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