The Little Wild Library: Wild Rose: Simple things to do with the plants around you. - Hardcover

Gogerty, Clare

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1446313751 ISBN 13: 9781446313756

Publisher: Verbena, 2025

Synopsis

Introducing The Little Wild Library: Wild Rose – a delightful guide that invites you to explore the beauty and versatility of the wild rose throughout the seasons. Known for its charming scent and vibrant rosehips, the wild rose is a plant that enchants foragers and nature lovers alike. From the delicate blooms of spring to the colorful berries of autumn, this pocket-sized guide helps you make the most of every stage of the wild rose’s life, offering practical foraging tips, seasonal recipes, and fascinating folklore.

• Simple Foraging Tips: Learn to identify the wild rose among other hedgerow plants, with easy-to-follow guidance on where and when to forage.

• Seasonal Recipes & Crafts: Discover a variety of beginner-friendly recipes and crafts, from rosehip syrup to fragrant flower infusions, perfect for any time of year.

• Rich History & Folklore: Dive into the myths and legends surrounding the wild rose, including how it earned its name, adding an enchanting touch to your foraging experience.

• Compact & Practical: This handy guide is designed to be taken out on your foraging adventures, helping you spot the wild rose’s blossoms or vibrant rosehips whenever you’re out exploring.

Whether you're new to foraging or looking to deepen your connection to the natural world, The Little Wild Library: Wild Rose is the perfect introduction to one of the most beloved plants in the hedgerow. With its wealth of botanical information, seasonal recipes, and magical folklore, this book will inspire you to engage with the plants around you and make the most of their many gifts.

About this title

About the Author

Clare Gogerty lives on a smallholding in deepest Herefordshire which she is opening as a spiritual retreat in 2023. The sound of shamanic drumming often comes from her orchard, and herbal remedies are frequently cooked up in the kitchen. She has been interested in magic, druidry and folklore since a child, encouraged by her father, an enthusiastic dowser and leyline hunter. A former magazine editor, she is now a freelance journalist and author, writing about spirituality, travel, homes and gardens.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Coming across a hedgerow covered with wild roses is like stumbling upon the essence of summer. The simple, papery, pink and white blooms sprinkled along thorny briars turn their open faces to the sun and fill the air with a sweet, delicate fragrance. It is a sight that puts a skip in your step and a broad smile on your face.

Fortunately, various species of wild rose are common throughout the UK, Europe, North America, and Asia. They grow happily where other plants would struggle – car parks, wasteland, and over your hedge into the neighbour’s garden – so they are easy to find. The only obstacle to their survival is over-enthusiastic mechanical hedge-cutting – left alone they romp away and flower from early to midsummer.

To the forager, wild roses present more than a visual feast; the petals have many delightful and fragrant uses from jam to confetti to cake decoration and Turkish delight. And when the rosehips form in late summer, the forager returns to the hedgerow to harvest the fruit by turning it into delicious syrup and oil. Birds including blackbirds, redwings, and fieldfares also head to the hedgerow to tuck into the vitamin-packed hips, accompanied by small mammals such as bank voles and squirrels.

Roses are the most recognisable and loved of all flowers, often voted as a favourite bloom. The Tudor Rose, a combination of the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York, which resembles two wild roses placed one on top of the other, is the heraldic emblem of England, and its national flower. War poet Rupert Brooke declared it England’s unofficial rose in his poem ‘The Old Vicarage, Grantchester’. The poem was written when he was homesick in Berlin in 1912.

Edition details

• Publisher: Verbena
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1446313751
• ISBN 13: 9781446313756
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 112