Roses grown, made into flower delicacies at Yunnan University

The flowering season spring sees two hectares of roses blooming at the Chenggong Campus of Yunnan University in Kunming, Yunnan Province. While visitors take pictures against the lovely flowers, teachers and students at the university know it's time to taste flower delicacies.

Rose pastry, flower cakes, rose sugar, and even fried flowers... These are distinctive snacks at Yunnan University in spring, when the bakery at the university is permeated with the rose fragrance. “Usually, the roses are first picked in April, and staff at the university bakery will begin making rose-related delicacies when more than 200 kilograms of roses are gathered.” Lu Xiaohong, who works at the university logistics service group and is in charge of the bakery, said

Of the delicacies, the most popular is the rose pastry. Every morning, fresh-cut roses are sent to the bakery. The baking of the flower pastry and cakes, which will be sent to the university canteens and supermarkets in the evening, is usually finished at around 3:00 pm. 

“Our rose pastries and flower cakes cheap but delicious, and the daily sale can be as many as more than one thousand, so orders ahead of time is suggested to ensure supply.” Lu Xiaohong said their pastries are mostly sold to the two campuses of Yunnan University, as well as to the kindergartens and secondary schools attached to the university.

“The roses in the campus were planted in 2016, consisting three varieties of the Damascus rose, the Shangdong purple rose and the Yunnan red rose,” said Li Yong, director of Green Center under the university’s logistics service. 

All roses can beautify the campus, but they differ in some uses. Damascus roses are used for research by the university’s biology and chemistry majors, while the Yunnan red rose is exclusively used as a food material. “Roses are multi-purpose. They are good-looking, eatable and useful in research,”said Li Yong, proud of his job.

The flowers are lauded by the teachers and students alike. Yang Xue, a north-China girl at the university, said she did not see so many flowers in her hometown. “Besides the edible roses, our school also boasts golden oil-seed flowers.”

Reporting by Guanxi Ruyi; trans-editing by Wang Shixue