Fascinating! You're right, beautiful roses but so labour-intensive, hard work.

Great video, Silvia! I loved the drive through the mountains at the first.

Hi Smithdale, growing beautiful roses like in the farm that I visited is a combination of good soil, good temperatures and good care.

Hi Deb, the drive was very smooth. You would love the ride in the Panamerican road all the way to Central America. I took that trip one time and saw different places, weather, food, customs. Not to forget for sure!

Thanks for sharing Silvia!

Silvia, I intend to do a driving trip to Mexico at some time, maybe never come back. I know it's not really safe on some roads, but I read that if you stay on the highway, you're fine. For some reason, the area around Guadalajara has stolen my heart. Perfect climate most of the year, beautiful scenery, and CHEAP. I especially love the cheap. :)

Bea, I love sharing gardening experiences!

Deb, cheap is the word I always look for.:) One time I spent quite some time all over Mexico and always had a great experience. I would stir away from border towns since they tend to be different. Start to practice your Spanish, there are programs for free on the web. Get ready and research as much as you can, there is always newspapers on line from the town and newsletters from ex pats that you can refer to.

Very nice trip. Have never been Ecuador. Thank you for sharing.

Hi Glenn, the owner of the farm was really nice and walked us and explained all about growing roses and we had a lot of questions.

It is a 9 acre farm and practices a lot of recycle, the roses were planted close together. I did not see any weeds or bugs.

What I like the most was the mulch, he said it was a combination of coffee hulls, manures and sugar cane leftovers well decomposed.

If you go to Quito the capital is the second highest city in the world, some people have trouble breathing because of the altitude.

How wonderful that the owner took the time to show you around. Roses love coffee and that sounds like a great mix that would build the soil really well. The high altitude would probably be a problem for me since I haven't been much above sea level in a long time.

Glenn, I don't have any problem with the altitude but for others that do there are herbal teas that you can take to help your body to adjust.

Hi Kristine

You are so right on all your thoughts! and yes when in the farm I was transported into a different world where everything smell great, so peaceful.

And to echo your comment I agree that the world would be a better place if we all take the time to care for nature and the gardens with all their beauty that soothes the soul...

Silvia, what type of tea and do you think it would help with altitude adjustment for flight school

Glenn, in my own experience when going through long flights, I drink a lot of plain water, teas for relaxing, nerves, and stomach problems to use accordingly, it can be mint, camomile, ginger.

I love the fruit teas from the market in Quito and I bought them in pounds to have them with me. The fruits from the different parts of the country are dehydrated to make the tea. I even like to chew on the fruits without making the tea. They are so good you don't need to add sugar.

Looks very tasty

That's a great rose vacation! Sounds like my kind of trip. Roses do love coffee and chicken manure. I also use fresh bunny berries on ours as well.

Glenn, for the altitude they have mate de coca, that is the tea. You can also get fresh leaves at the market. Cannot bring them home! lol

Hi Sultry, that will be your kind of vacation for sure!

We went to the smaller rose farm to visit. The others are amazing and they can make roses according to anything that your heart desires, custom made. The really long stems cost more and they said are favorite in parts of Europe. I saw roses with different colors of petals in the same bud.

And at the end of the tour, the owner gifted me with the most beautiful bunches of roses, too bad that I was leaving the next day and I had to give them away.

The whole place smelled like heaven!:)

Sylvia - Your visit sounds wonderful. This is getting saved (along with other trips you've mentioned) so that I can one day refer to them when planning my vacations.

vml68, I am glad that you liked my last trip. Like usual we had a lot of fun and things to do, places to visit and food to eat.

I will be putting on the blog more details about the trips past and present....

I enjoyed the video .. thank you... I had wondered what it was like there as I had heard about it... I think I'm right in saying this, and just saying because it wasn't mentioned on your video, is that because they are right on the equator, the roses grow straight stems, straight upwards, as we can see in your film, which is why they are perfect for our vases and floristry... it's something to do with being equatorial, I think places in Africa and Israel also produce florist roses...

Hi Marlorena, I am glad that you liked the video, I had a lot of fun and insights while walking at the farm.

Being in the Equatorial line it makes to have the perfect weather, sun and climate are ideal. In the morning and night you need a sweeter or jacket and the middle of the day is warm. You don't need air conditioner or heater.:)

The most important thing is the volcanic soil that are native to the area plus they use natural mulches and fertilizers.

The care for the roses is superb and they pay attention to details, they also do grafting for specific varieties.

And yes I am aware that a big competition is coming from Kenya for the Europe market.

The day that we were leaving Ecuador, there was a big flower expo going on and I was sorry that we missed that!

The same week that we were there a group of botanist found new orchid varieties and it was in the newspaper. Ecuador is known as the orchid capital of the world with more than 4.200 species and finding more....but, that is another trip.:)