Deb -
1- hang your roses upside down to dry
2- do a search for potpourri
3- mix the dried petals with other dried petals and add some fragrance or essential oil
4- go to From Nature With Love for recipes and some other ingredients
5- keep a basket handy and add dried petals as you collect them
6- dry citrus peel to add to potpourri
7 - make tub teas with the petals
and on, and on and on - does any of this help? :>karenb

there are two ways to dry roses- as whole flowers (hang upside down, either in small bunches, or singly) or by spreading the petals thinly on a screen and leaving them in a dry, shady place...they're not very 'wet' petals, so they dry in a few days. marigolds and delphimiums also dry well this way.

Orris root is the 'traditional' powder added to 'hold' the fragrance oils, good herb shops/health food stores carry it. normally, one just adds essential oils to the mix, and fluffs them around.

you can also candy rose petals, and make a rose sugar syrup (Martha the Tyrant has a recipe, a good 'rennaisance' site should as well, I make mine by 'feel' cup of sugar, half cup of water, two cups of petals, simmer don't boil, strain into a jelly jar when the mix turns the color the petals used to be) that's not as good as the violet, but way easier to come by.