May not be the right kind of rose petals. A dehydrator is necessary to speed up the drying as quick as possible. If not, most of the smell will be lost if just air dried.

I've only dried rose petals once. When my MIL died I went to her rose garden, picked all the fragrant varieties and created "Rene's Country Rose Garden Potpourri" which I put in some of her antique bail canning jars and gave all the children, grandchildren and greats for Christmas.

I dried them outside on screens. A dehydrator or oven will tend to inhibit the delicate scent.

Even then I did add just a few drops of essence of rose, but for culinary uses that shouldn't be necessary.

I found a discussion of drying rose petals on the dried and pressed flowers forum. Check the link below.

P.S. for your meals, don't forget the Persian tea. I got this recipe from a young Iranian woman:

1 part "light" black tea (i.e. not assertive like Irish breakfast) and 1 part Darjeeling. Brew with crushed green cardamom and a splash of rosewater to taste.

Be sure to get the right brand of rosewater. Some taste like soap.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Drying Rose Petals

I have an unopened bottle of rosewater, maybe I should just use a drop of that instead. These are wild pasture roses and not very smelly as is, so I'm wondering if they will even have any rose "taste" as it were. The hips were sure boring when I made them into jelly last year. Besides being a rambling beast, that's the main reason I am shovel pruning this baby--it just has a ho hum bloom in June and that's it--the hips are small, hard and hairy, not worth the trouble either. The rest of the time it is a thorny beast that sends runners out all over my yard and the neighbors yard. I tried to dig it out to give it to a friend and it broke my shovel. The best I could do was give her some of the shoots. The main beast is anchored down like iron--I'm going to have to cut it out. I do so hate to hack up plants!! But if I don't do something it will take over my yard, and the neighbors yard. It was so cute two years ago when I first got it, lol! Little did I know . . .

Probably not. Usually the best roses for culinary purposes and potpourri are the old-fashioned damask varieties, but not dog roses and such. It sounds with your specimen that digging it out is the most sensible option.

Sometime you might check out the source below. Mountain Rose Herbs is an excellent company; their products are superior to many others. If you have a need for spices, teas, etc. you could tack on a small order of rose petals.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Mountain Rose Herbs

I actually was just about to do a Penzey's order!! I have to get more Adobo seasoning, I am addicted to it. Mt. Rose seems like a fun company, lots of great products. And you can't beat the name ;)

Have you checked out The Spice House? It's run by another Penzey and is the original parent company. I've been surprised to discover how much better I like their products than Penzeys. Just my opinion, but I have found their spices to be fresher and of a higher quality.

Even if you decide not to order, their annotations for spices are very helpful and their recipe archive is a rich resource. Take a look.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: The Spice House

Yes, I used to order all my whole spices for potpourri from the Spice House, back in the day. But friends turned me on to Penzeys before I even joined GardenWeb. Now I'm addicted to Adobo seasoning and vanilla sugar and sandwich sprinkle!! And as long as I'm ordering, then I get my other spices too, since I'm paying the postage anyway. There's nothing that special about Penzeys IMHO, except their marketing, and I like a lot of the recipes that come in the catalogs.
I miss the days when I bought spices at a little independently owned spice shop in Grand Rapids. I imagine them getting a Penzeys put it out of business if it wasn't out of business already. Back then in the prosperous 90's, there was an independent coffee and tea shop and spice shop. There's a tea and coffee shop at the Allentown Market but I haven't been impressed with their wares.