I think ALL rose petals are "edible" (as long as not sprayed with ANYTHING, on purpose or accidentally), to answer your question. Of course, not all will taste the same, or be as good for various food uses. Lots of good ideas above. Did you know that during WWII, when the UK was losing tens of thousands of tons of shipping (mostly food imports) daily to the German submarine blockade, they were running short on various types of food. Also, vitamin C, as they do not grow citrus. However, gardeners there DO (and DID) grow roses! So, the government asked people to collect the rose hips, got tons of them, and were able to process them into Vit C tablets. True story. Roses are useful! Jackie

Eric, Well, there are too many to name, but some that come to me at once are 'Common Moss'--lanky, derived from 'Centifolia', fragrant, fascinating buds 'Crested Moss' (aka 'Chapeau de Napoleon')--another Centifolia sport, with charming cocked hat buds and all the fragrance, fullness, and old rose color of its parent 'Mme. Zoetmans'--white with slight blush, shortish Gallica habit (forms a thicket of upright stems and suckers), extremely rich fragrance 'Alain Blanchard'--red, shortish Gallica, not as much fragrance as some but it has delightful freckles 'De la Maitre-Ecole' (there are several variants of this name), Gallica, medium height, vigorous, large double fragrant pink-mauve-lilac blooms, gets mildew in summer but is totally untroubled by it 'Belle sans Flatterie'--double pink refined Gallica, low suckering habit, robust, fragrant 'Belle Amour'--thorny lanky plant of uncertain derivation, charming peach-tinted pink semi-double blooms with a boss of golden stamens, myrrh-scented 'Fantin-Latour'--big shrub probably with some China in its ancestry, smallish double light pink very fragrant blooms, smooth stems and few thorns, gets summer mildew but isn't bothered by it; the whole plant is so robust and healthy and RIGHT that it's a pleasure to work with it 'Ypsilante'--big flat pink-mauve-gray fragrant blooms like velvet powderpuffs 'Tuscany Superb'--extremely deep rich wine-red, double flowers, suckering Gallica habit, not too tall, foliage colors in fall 'Capitain John Ingram'--Moss with small fragrant double blooms with a button eye, deep lilac to purple and velvety above, smooth and lighter before, to be studied up close 'Juno'-- beautiful large double pale blooms, fragrant, lax rather thorny growth, tough plant, not too large in my garden Well, I could go on and on, these are just off the top of my head. VERY IMPORTANT: just because a rose isn't on this list doesn't mean it's not as good as, or even better, than the ones I've listed. All the Albas are good. Among Damaks I didn't list 'Leda' and 'Pink Leda', among others. And there many, many wonderful Gallicas, which had a period of glory in the first part of the 19th century that resulted in many fine varieties. And the Mosses are fascinating. Then there are the Scots roses derived from R. spinosissima (=R. pimpinellifolia), which I don't grow because they don't like my conditions, but I would if they did better for me. 'Stanwell Perpetual' that you list is a Spinosissima cross. Have you had a chance to look at once-blooming old roses in a garden? Because the flowers are only a small part of the story. I like the range of habits and variety of growth of the old roses, some making a thicket of upright stems, others sending out lanky long canes; some thorny, some bristly; most with more or less rough-textured growth; many with fragrant, slightly sticky buds; showing a wide variety of hips; many coloring in fall. These roses that I love look, to my eyes, wilder than their Oriental cousins the Teas and Chinas, and they have in bloom an opulence all their own. Melissa

There's the rub...the gene (s) which are supposed to permit the formation of delphinidin, the blue pigment, is/are patented. IF you raise a rose containing them without permission and without paying for the "right", you are in violation of patent law and subject to litigation. Think Monsanto with their GMO products and the numerous litigation cases they've brought against people who have raised crops containing their inserted genes, deliberately or not. Even containing that gene, there is no guarantee of the expression of "blue". I honestly wouldn't put it past them to have bred in sterility as they have in the "suicide crops" already generated to prevent farmers from saving seed from one year's crop for the next. Brazil is currently considering whether to permit those seeds from being sold within their borders. The "suicide crops" supposedly create workable products the first generation, but seed from that generation are sterile, preventing further crops from being generated from them. That requires anyone wishing to raise the product to buy new seed from Monsanto every year. Kim

We use the stinging nettles! Hopefully you won't be afraid to try picking them anyway. Ideally they should be picked while they are still more purple than green and don't sting yet but my husband was a little late in harvesting so he wore gloves and used scissors. He cut off the end shoots with about 3-4 top leaves. Then I rinsed them well in the kitchen sink and picked over them for any debris, usually pine needles here, wearing rubber gloves. Then I boiled them for 15 minutes in lightly salted water and drained them before mixing the wilted leaves to a very bright green purée. I use my usual green soup recipe, sautée the mixed leaves first in a little butter, thicken with flour and add a chicken bouillon cube and water. Add a little pepper but no other spice, but a little chives or spring onions if you have some instead of the ramsons I happened to have. Julia Child's recipe in her French cookbok is another very good recipe I use sometimes, with potatoes instead of flour as the thickening agent. This is the first of the spring green soups, the next will be sorrel, just coming up. With sorrel I follow Julia Child's recipe.This soup will be gray-green and not the vivid green of nettle soup. Next soup again will be with chervil. We serve all green soups with egg halves.