Bulgaria is one of the biggest producers of rose oil in the world. The reason for this is hidden in the high qualities of the Bulgarian Kazanluk rose ("Kazanlashka roza"), a special type, that was cultivated in our country after many years of production and development. The Bulgarian roses are inheritors of the so called Damascena rose, that was brought here ages ago. The rose oil is called "the liquid gold" of Bulgaria, because it is a very expensive product, used mainly for the making of perfumes, chocolates, liqueur and jam. The rose oil is 3 times more expensive than the real gold. One kilogram rose oil can be extracted from 3000 kg of roses. This means, that for one gramme of rose oil are used more than 1300 rose blossoms! Every flower is picked by hands and preserved carefully for the distillation. More than 2000 people are occupied in the harvest every year.

The period of the harvest lasts only 20-25 days. 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 near Kazanlak. It has established itself as a stable, independent type of rose, differing in its anatomy and physiology from the oil-bearing roses cultivated elsewhere.

Special Thanks to www.rose-festival.com