Roses are everywhere in Ecuador. Public spaces -- hotel lobbies, restaurant entrances, church vestibules -- are likely to be embellished with a massive bouquet of velvet-petalled, impossibly long-stemmed Ecuadoran roses.
Ecuador's rose varieties exhibit every imaginable shade of red, pink, orange, and yellow, bridal white, and multi-hued hybrids. And their fragrances are just as multi-dimensional.
Quito visitors may follow the Ecuadoran Flower Trail, a series of auto routes. An unforgettable honeymoon experience, private tours of Ecuadoran rose farms promise the sight and scent of thousands of roses growing en masse.
Among Ecuador's pioneer rose farms, Nevado Roses offers a fascinating free tour of its two rose farms outside Quito. The organic facility's edible roses are used in recipes devised by top international chefs.
A rose is a rose is a rose? Not in Ecuador.
