(this place has always inspired me. So I'll starts this first)

The Rose Valley  is a region in Bulgaria located just south of the Balkan Mountains and the eastern part of the lower Sredna Gora chain to the south. Geologically, it consists of two river valleys, those of the Stryama to the west and the Tundzha to the east.

The Rose Valley of Kazanlak stretches for 10-12 kilometers and is 95 kilometers long with an average height of 350 meters and an area of 1895 square kilometers.

Respectively, the Kalofer Valley of Roses covers an area of 1387 square kilometers with a length of 55 kilometers and 16 kilometers width.

The valley is famous for its rose-growing industry which have been cultivated there for centuries, and which produces close to half (1.7 tonnes)of the world's rose oil. The centre of the rose oil industry is Kazanlak, while other towns of importance include Karlovo, Sopot, Kalofer and Pavel banya. Each year, festivals are held celebrating roses and rose oil. Leading companies in the health and beauty industry like "TomyShow Cosmetics" have made this region their home and have built their headquarters there.

The picking season lasts from May to June. During this period, the area gives off a pleasant scent and is covered with multi-coloured flowers. The gathering process, traditionally a woman's task, requires great dexterity and patience. The flowers are carefully cut one by one and laid in willow-baskets which are then sent to the distilleries. Tourists are welcome to join the rose-picking process, usually on weekend mornings when special ritual reenactments are organized in villages around Kazanlak.

Despite its vague whereabouts, the roses aren't just for "looking pretty." Bulgaria is actually one of the largest producers of rose oil in the world, and most of that oil is found in the rainy Rose Valley. While rainfall is heaviest during the spring — peaking in June — now is a time of great celebration in the hypothetical "valley."

A Rose Festival is held each year in the town of Kazanlak, where a beautiful girl is elected "Queen Rose," followed by rose picking, street parades and local folk dancing.

Since the 17th century Rosa Damascena oil has impacted the livelihood, culture, and traditions of Bulgarians living in the southern sub-mountain region of the Balkan Mountains that the valley is now known across the globe as The Valley of Roses.

What literature sources say about the Valley of Roses

Throughout the 18th, 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, various western, Russian and Bulgarian explorers, writers and revolutionaries have mentioned the development and importance of the rose production in Bulgaria.

In his third letter to the National geographic institute in Paris in 1859, S. Paye points out:

"The Kazanlak valley was called by the Turks – 'Tele' – the richest and most fertile land in European Turkey."

When visiting the Kazanlak Valley on the 21st of May, 1837, Helmuth von Moltke wrote in his itinerary "In the land of roses":

"The air is filled with aroma and I do not only mean it figuratively, as it is usually said in poetic descriptions, I mean it literally. Kazanlak is the Cashmere of Europe, a Turkish Gullestan*."

*Gullestan from Turkish means 'rose valley' or 'land of roses'

According to Gabrielle Turgut, 1680 was the year when rose distillation began in Bulgaria – in the beautiful Rose Valley.

I have to agree with those foreign visitors of my homeland, the Valley has its unique charm. When Spring comes, there is some kind of magic in the air, the birds sing, people smile and the scent of flowers brightens your mind! You can almost feel the reason why the ancient Thracian tribes have decided to place their valley of Thracian kings inside the Valley of Roses, but let us not get distracted, I will write more about our Thracian heritage in another article!

The Valley is surrounded by mountains which protect it from unfavorable winds, there is a river or a spring flowing through each little village, providing enough water not only for the growth of Rosa Damascena but for a variety of other flowers used in perfumery as well.

High amounts of rain in May and June are crucial for the successful growth of the Damask Rose, with an average of 100mm per square meter of rainfall. The predominant soil in the region is cinnamon-forest soil which is always mixed with sand and rubble, with some formed alluvial soil types and subtypes created by the accumulation of river mineralization.

The winters in the Rose Valley are mild and combined with the airy soils and heavy Spring rains they form the perfect conditions for growing our dear Rosa Damascena which has an unsurpassed fragrance.

The Rise of Rose Production in Bulgaria

The favorable climate for growing Damask Rose has marked the development of the processing and perfume industries in Bulgaria, which later lead to the international denomination of Bulgaria as the Rose Country.

Before growing and trading with Rosa Damascena products, Bulgarians living in the Kazanlak and Karlovo valleys would grow various types of fruits and vegetables, craft different tools, and cloth, herd cattle and trade with neighbor regions.

Interesting facts about the rose production in the early 20th century

•A 1000 square meters of land with Rosa Damascena plants cost between 60-200 levs.

•In order to produce 1 kilogram of rose oil, you need 3000-3500 kilograms of the Kazanlak White rose or 4000-5000 kilograms of the Red oil-bearing rose.

•The average growth of lands planted with roses was between 2 and 5 thousand square meters a year.

•The overall cost of having a 2000 square meter of rose plantation maintained costed 45 levs. Planting, hoeing, earing, rose picking, transportation, taxes and even a 5% interest.

•Each village in the rose Valley had their special method of maintaining, planting and processing the rose petals. There is a long list of various tools used in each of these processes, some of which you can see in the Institute of Rose in Kazanlak and their museum.

•Sadly, the huge increase of rose plantations in the early 20th century was reduced to 23% after the end of World War II.

•In order to find out if any rose plants were frostbitten, the locals would pick a number of branches, stick them in potatoes and leave them behind their stoves for a few days, the ratio between fresh and dry branches would show whether they should hire more or fewer rose pickers.

•Out of 1 kilogram of rose petals, you can produce 1 kilogram of rose water.

The Rose Picking Frenzy in Mid-May – Early-June

This time of the year is the happiest and most dynamic for the rose farmers, as it marks the time where they reap the fruits of their labour that they've put in throughout the year.

Two weeks before the actual rose picking, the local farmers frantically fix the barrels for rose boiling, preparing a fireplace made of 'red' clay, buying rose oil bottles and flasks, digging ditches where cold water will flow from the local rivers in order to cool the hot steam of the rose processing. Everything is checked and double-checked because when the rose processing begins it goes on 24/7 and there is no time for any extra work.

Rose farmers who have 2 to 3 thousand square meters of rose plantation gather their families and prepare to pick up roses by themselves while those with more roses to pick hire rose pickers and pay them per kilogram of roses picked. The annual average of hired rose pickers was over 3000.

The rose picking begins at 4 o'clock in the morning and usually ends at 10 AM because the rose petals picked in the afternoon have 50% less rose oil concentrate in them. Experienced rose pickers say that roses give most rose oil when there is high humidity. Rainy weather prolongs the rose-picking process and therefore eases the labor of the rose pickers as the rose petals bloom gradually.

If the weather is sunny and dry, the rose-picking could go on for more than 10 hours each day and the rose petals are stored under shelters where they are sprayed with water as the farmers can not keep up with the rose boiling.

The rose pickers pick the rose petals in special, willow branch baskets as the willow does not soak the dew of the rose petals. Afterward, the rose petals are put in big baskets made of willow branches again and are transported to the rose processing plant.

The rose picking period begins and lasts differently for the different regions. In Kazanlak it begins on the 5th of May and ends on the 20th of June, in Karlovo it begins on the 7th of May and ends on the 19th of June, in Nova Zagora, it begins on the 8th of May and ends on the 25th of June. This difference is due to the height of each valley and its temperature and humidity.

The amount of rose oil produced from the oil-bearing roses depends on the type of rose. The most common roses grown for their rose otto in the Valley of Roses are:

White oil-bearing rose (Rosa × alba)

Stambolska oil-bearing rose (Rosa gallica)

Red oil-bearing rose (Rosa damascena Mill. f. trigintipetala Dieck)

How to Pick a Rose Bud Properly?

The way you pick a rosebud properly is using your thumb, index and middle fingers. Hold the rosebud and break it by pressing it upwards with your thumb. Now when you go on a rose picking event in the valley, the locals will be amazed and will say: "Wow, how did you know how to pick roses? Bravo!" And don't forget to wear old clothes as the rose thorns will be all over you.

(sounds pretty funny but its better than cutting roses with scissors )

The Steaming Process of Rose Oil Production

Distillation of rose oil - event from the rose festival in KazanlakBack in the day, rose producers would experiment with various techniques in order to produce higher quality rose otto. For example, a typical Bulgarian method would be to have a metal tube which is put in an 80×80 cm. wooden barrel filled with cold water which is used to cool the hot steam of the rose boiling barrel. This tube was called бурия (buria).

The Bulgarian rose producers were pretty good at finding ingenious ways to increase the quality of the rose oil, and as the local producers would say: the quality and quantity you can produce depends on 1. the quality of the rose petals and 2. the experience of the one who makes the rose oil. For example, compared to the Turkish rose oil producers, Bulgarian producers make 40 to 86 vials to the 14 to 53 Vials of their Turkish neighbours. One of their secrets to success was to take off the boiling cauldron off the hot fire and afterward continue boiling it on low heat fire. Another important trick is to not let any steam out which would decrease the amount of oil produced.

(I'm not even sure if I'm doing the right thing but anyway I hope you guys enjoyed it)