Learn how to turn the beautiful roses in your garden into a tasty and gorgeous rose petal jelly!

It’s made with reduced sugar pectin, fresh rose petals, sugar, lemon juice, and water. That’s all you need to make this pretty floral treat.

jars of rose petal jelly — *Learn how to turn rose petals into a tasty and beautiful jelly!*

Rose petal jelly tastes very good too – somewhat like a mild grape-like flavor, with just a tiny hint of floral rose.

RELATED RECIPE: We also have a homemade rose petal jam recipe, made with fresh strawberries and roses: Strawberry Rose Freezer Jam.

Collecting & Preparing Rose Petals

In order to make this jelly, you’ll first need to find a way to get your hands on some fresh roses. Not just any roses, though – you need them to be within a certain color range if you want your jelly to have that pretty pinkish-red color.

If you’d like your jelly to be a vibrant pink color, you need to collect fresh rose petals from red, dark pink, or vivid magenta roses only.

While you could use yellow, orange, or pale pink roses for this project, and the resulting jelly will still taste yummy, just be aware that it’s going to turn out brown or golden colored, rather than pink. Wild rose petals can also be used; but light pink or white roses will make a golden rather than pink jelly.

Type of rose doesn’t matter – we use a mix of petals from modern knockout roses and old-fashioned rugosa roses, since our antique roses are all soft pastel colors that wouldn’t make a pretty jelly.

woman's hand holding a jar of rose jelly in front of rose bushes — *You can use old fashioned roses or more modern roses, such as knockout roses to make rose jelly.*

Your rose petals should come only from plants you know are unsprayed and healthy. Avoid diseased, sprayed, or otherwise suspect roses. Unfortunately, it’s not recommended to use store-bought hothouse or florist roses since they’re heavily sprayed.

Petal Preparation

If you brought in whole flowers, now is the time to start removing the petals from the flowers. You want your petals to be very fresh for this jelly, so don’t let them wilt or dry!

A Hidden Pinch

Watch out for earwigs! They like to hang out inside the rose petals, and they’ve got a good pinch on them. Don’t worry! An earwig bite isn’t venomous, just startling. Shoo these pinchy little friends back outside if you encounter them while working with your rose petals.

earwig bug hiding in a rose — *Keep an eye out for bugs in your roses & make sure to leave them outside!*

We like to cut the white end of each petal off with a pair of scissors. This is optional. Some people say it can reduce the chance of bitterness in the jelly. It’s up to you if you’d like to take this step as well, or skip over it.

Once you have 2 lightly-packed cups of rose petals, you’ve got enough to make the jelly, or more correctly, the rose petal tea we’re going to turn into our jelly!

rose tea brightens after adding lemon juice — *Rose petal tea turns a rich color after you add the lemon juice!*

Rose Tea for Jelly

To turn our rose petals into a form that can be made into jelly, we’re going to use them to make a very concentrated rose tea – which is basically a homemade rose water. This gives us the flavor and color we want from the petals in liquid form, which will then allow us to mix it together with pectin, sugar, and lemon juice to make our yummy rosy spread.

You will need:

2 lightly packed cups of fresh rose petals
3 cups water
a large pot
a large heat-safe container
a fine mesh strainer or colander lined with cheesecloth (to catch fine debris)

steep rose petals to make a tea — *The pink color has leached from the rose petals and into the water, so now it’s ready to strain! Remember the color will really improve once you add the lemon juice.*

Directions to make the tea:

Drop your rose petals into the heat-safe container, and set aside.
On a burner set to medium-high or high heat, bring the 3 cups of water to a boil. Remove from heat, and immediately pour the boiling water directly over top the rose petals.
Stir the rose petals to ensure they all have a chance to come in contact with the boiling water, and then cover loosely and leave to steep for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, the petals should be faded and the water should appear to have a pink tint. Strain into a new container, saving all the liquid, gathering up the spent petals and squeezing them to make sure you get it all. Discard the spent petals.
You should have 2 1/2 cups to 3 cups of tea from this recipe. Use it immediately to make jelly, or freeze the tea for up to 3 months.

rose petal jelly jars cooling — *These jars of rose petal jelly are fresh from the water bath canner and need to cool.*

How to Make Rose Petal Jelly

Ingredients & Equipment

2 1/2 cups rose petal tea
2 tbsp lemon juice (approx. the juice from one medium-large lemon)
1 packet Sure Jell low or no sugar powdered pectin (the 1.75 oz pink box)
2 1/2 cups white cane sugar (alternative sweeteners or reducing the amount of sugar may affect color or jelly set)
Optional: 1/2 tsp butter (reduces foaming, may be added at any time during the jelly-cooking process to reduce foam)
Heavy-duty 6-8 quart pot or stockpot
Water bath canner & rack
Canning jars (recipe fills about 4.5 half-pint jars; or 9 four-ounce jars)
Canning lids and rims to fit your jars
Jar lifter
Ladle, or heatproof container with a pour-spout

Before we begin:

If canning this jelly, first set up your water bath canner and sterilize your jars before proceeding. Running jars of jelly through a hot water bath canner will increase the shelf life so that’s it’s good for at least one year.

To prepare the canner, fill it with enough water so it will completely cover your submerged jars by at least 1 inch. You can help judge this by pre-filling the empty jars with water, setting them down in the canner, and adding water until they’re covered.

Tip: You can keep the jars in the hot water bath canner while it heats, to keep them nice and hot for filling. Just dump out the water from the jar, back into the pot before filling with hot jelly mixture.

pouring rose petal jelly into jars — *Pour the hot jelly into hot jars.*

Instructions for Rose Jelly

Add together your tea and lemon juice, and stir to combine. The tea will shift in color to a vibrant pink. Add this to your stockpot, and set aside.
Measure the sugar into a bowl, and then remove 1/4 of a cup of it, and place that 1/4 cup into a new bowl. Set the original bowl of sugar (which now has 2 1/4 cups of sugar in it) aside for later.
To the bowl that has 1/4 cup of sugar in it, add the powdered pectin, and stir to combine. Once combined, add this to your tea and lemon juice mixture in the pot, and mix. Place pot on a burner set to high heat.
Stirring constantly with a whisk or spoon, bring to a rolling boil. Once it has reached this point, add all the remaining sugar in at once. This will briefly stop the boiling. Stirring constantly, bring it back to a full rolling boil once more.
Once back at a the rolling boil stage, boil for exactly 1 minute, still stirring constantly. After 1 minute, remove from heat.
Jelly will begin to set up quickly. Swiftly but carefully, ladle or pour jelly into prepared canning jars, leaving a 1/4th inch headspace at the top if you’re canning it.
Wipe off the rims of the jelly with a damp cloth to get rid of any spots of splashed jelly that could interfere with the sealing process.
Place lids on top of the jars, and screw the rings firmly into place.

If you decide not to can your jelly, leave it exactly where it is for 12 to 24 hours to cool and rest. Afterwards, move it to the refrigerator, where it will be good for about 3 weeks. Use it before then, or freeze to extend shelf life further.

place lid on clean rims — *Wipe the rims clean before putting on the lids and rings.*

Water Bath Canning Rose Petal Jelly

Rose petal jelly should be water-bath canned for 10 minutes, in sterilized jars.

Place the filled jars with lids and rings down into the hot water. Cover the water canner with a lid, then bring the water back up to a boil. Process the jars for 10 minutes once the water starts boiling again.

Once they’ve undergone the 10 minutes of processing, the jars of hot jelly can be gently lifted out of the canner with the jar lifter, and placed on a folded towel to cool and rest undisturbed.

The lids may pop occasionally, which is nothing to be alarmed of- that’s just the sound of a successful seal!

removing rose petal jelly from water bath canner — *Use a jar lifter to remove hot jars from the water bath canner.*

Leave for 12-24 hours, completely undisturbed. After this, they’ll be cooled, sealed, and ready to store. Keep homemade jelly in your storeroom or pantry, or else somewhere cool, dark, and out of direct sunlight. Jelly jars with unsuccessful seals that didn’t take should be treated the same as an uncanned jar of jelly, and be kept in the refrigerator to be used within 3 weeks.

jars of jelly being lifted from a water bath canner and cooled jars in a row — *Use fresh roses to make this yummy and beautiful rose petal jelly!*

More Flower Jelly Recipes

Do you enjoy turning your garden flowers, weeds, and veggies into jelly? We do too!

Check out some of our other homemade jelly recipes:

row of spring flower jellies — *Left to right: Dandelion Jelly, Redbud Jelly, Forsythia Flower Jelly & Violet Jelly*

Recipe Card for Rose Petal Jelly:

Rose Petal Jelly Recipe

This beautiful homemade rose petal jelly is made with reduced sugar pectin and tastes delicious!

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Total Time: 4

Servings: half-pints

Ingredients

For the rose tea:

2 cups fresh rose petals
3 cups boiling water

For the rose jelly:

2 1/2 cups rose petal tea (from above)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 box Sure Jell low or no sugar powdered pectin (the 1.75 oz pink box)
2 1/2 cups white cane sugar
jars with lids & rings (5 half-pint jars, or 9 to 10 four-ounce jelly jars)

Instructions

For the rose petal tea:

Place the rose petals in a heat-proof pitcher or container.
Pour 3 cups boiling water over the petals.
Stir, cover, then steep for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, the petals should be faded and the water should have a pink tint.
Strain and reserve 2 1/2 cups for the jelly. (Leftover rose water can be used as a face wash, or added to your bath to help soothe skin.)

For the rose petal jelly:

If you plan to water bath can your jelly, prepare the water bath canner by filling it with water & jars, then place over a hot burner to start heating while you cook the jelly.
Combine the rose tea and lemon juice. The color should noticeably brighten and improve once the lemon juice is added.
Place the tea in a heavy duty stockpot.
Measure the sugar into a bowl, and then remove 1/4 of a cup of it, and place that 1/4 cup into a new bowl. Set the original bowl of sugar (which now has 2 1/4 cups of sugar in it) aside for later.
To the bowl that has 1/4 cup of sugar in it, add the powdered pectin, and stir to combine. Once combined, add this to your tea and lemon juice mixture in the pot, and mix.
Place the pot containing the rose tea + pectin/sugar mixture over high heat.
Stir constantly with a whisk or spoon, while bringing to a rolling boil.
Once boiling, add all of the remaining 2 1/4 cups sugar at once.
This will briefly stop the boiling, but keep stirring until it starts boiling again.
Once the jelly mixture has returned to a full boil, set a timer and boil for one minute, stirring constantly.
After 1 minute of boiling, remove from heat.
Carefully ladle or pour jelly into the jars that were staying hot in the water bath canner.
Leave a 1/4 inch headspace.
Wipe off the rims of the jelly with a damp cloth to get rid of any spots of splashed jelly that could interfere with the sealing process.
Place the lid and rings on top of the jar and place in the water bath canner. Cover the canner with its top.
Once the water in the canner is boiling, set a timer and process the jars for ten minutes.
Remove and cool on a towel for 24 hours.
Alternatively, if you don't can your jelly, store it in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, or freeze for later use.

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Rose Petal Jelly