Second largest collection of Bourbon roses in Europe

The Franciscan Monastery at Kostanjevica boasts of 70 species of Bourbon roses

6. maj 2016 ob 11.33 • Nova Gorica - MMC RTV SLO

Presently the members of the Rose Society from Nova Gorica are rearranging and expanding the monastery garden, and soon their collection of Bourbon roses will be even bigger and more variegated. Foto: Mojca Dumančič

May in Nova Gorica is traditionally under the sign of rose - the queen of flowers. This year the festival of roses is being organised for the 11th time, and it has already attracted a large number of visitors. Last year their rosary was registered among the European rose gardens, which made the festival better known also abroad.Most of the visitors come to admire the second largest collection of Bourbon roses in Europe – the rose garden of the Franciscan Monastery at Kostanjevica above Nova Gorica.

Edi Prošt, a member of the Rose Society from Nova Gorica, who also cultivates more than 70 different species of the queen of flowers at home, and is an exceptional connoisseur of roses, explains to a crowd of visitors of the Bourbon rose collection in the monastery garden: "Bourbon roses are the first link between briar-roses and modern-day roses. The change occurred almost two hundred years ago, in 1817, when a Chinese briar-rose and a European Damask rose interbred at Ile de Bourbon. The first Bourbon rose was named "Rose Eduard", and is also one of the first we had in our collection in Nova Gorica. Now we have almost seventy species of Bourbon roses, which makes it the second largest collection of these ancient roses in Europe.
Bourbon rose garden next to the Bourbon vault
The ancient Bourbon roses were named after their place of origin, i.e. interbreeding, the island Ile de Bourbon. In Nova Gorica they were placed next to the vault of the last French king of the Bourbon line, above the crypt of Charles X. Edi Prošt explained: "When thirteen years ago the Nova Gorica rose lovers looked for a suitable place for a Bourbon rose collection, we soon came to an agreement with the Franciscan friars at Kostanjevica above Novo Gorica. They had just started designing the monastery garden, so we suggested we might plant a collection of ancient roses. Accidentally the name of the roses corresponds to the name of the vault below the church, where the royal Bourbons are buried."
Presently the members of the Rose Society from Nova Gorica are rearranging and expanding the monastery garden, and soon their collection of Bourbon roses will be even bigger and more variegated - although also the present collection is a real eyeful, and very pleasant for the nose as well, as the Bourbon roses smell the nicest of all roses.

Food flavoured with roses
Because of their captivating scent the Bourbon roses are a pleasant addition to menus. This year, at the 11th Festival of Roses the culinary offer is especially inviting. At the Hit restaurant of the Hotel Lipa in Šempeter near Nova Gorica and in the Hotel Sabotin in Solkan the visitors can taste fish dishes with rose petals, and quench their thirst with home-made rose ice tea, or have home-made rolled dumplings with rose ice-cream.