Situated in the southern part of Europe, many places in Bulgaria receive a lot of sunshine. Other aspects of its geography make it an ideal location for lots of flowers. Bulgaria is a land link to central Europe, the Euro-Asian steppe and Mediterranean areas. In the northwestern part of the country, sunflowers are a major crop. They are raised as a crop for use in making sunflower oil. Birds like to eat sunflowers, making them less than popular with those that grow them (unless they are bird lovers). The field below is near the city of Montana, a city in northwest Bulgaria.
Homes, hotels, and other businesses like to decorate with flowers. The Bulgarians, like Americans and many others, like to come up with interesting containers for their annuals. The pictures below are from a restaurant in the Rila mountains. The dianthus (pinks) and pansies were planted next to a river that ran below the restaurant. The picture of roses found at the end of this article are from the same restaurant, as is the picture with the big shoe and other unique containers.
Although there are many different wild flowers and cultivated annuals and perennials grown in Bulgaria, the country is particularly famous for the roses they grow. A band of land running west to east in the central part of the country is called the Valley of Roses.
A major city in this belt of land is Kazanluk. It is a center for rose oil extraction and, like other towns in the area, they have a yearly rose festival. At these celebrations, rose-petal jam, a rose-flavored candy called lokum, rose liqueur and rose brandy are available. Dances and parades are also part of a typical rose festival (A. Kay, Bulgaria, 2008).
Roses originated in China and India. They were brought to Bulgaria via the Middle East and the Valley of Roses, bordered to the north by the wind-breaking Stara Planina (“old mountains”) proved to be an excellent spot for them to grow. Since the late 1600s, rose oil from Bulgaria has been sold in European markets. The roses are harvested from mid-May to mid-June. It takes over 6,000 pounds of roses to make a liter of rose oil (A. Kay, Bulgaria, 2008).
