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Category: Articles » Home & Family » Gardening » Article » Article Code

The Fantastic History of Roses

Have you ever wondered if what you know about rose is accurate? Consider the following paragraphs and compare what you know to the latest info on roses. "It was roses, roses all; the way". - Robert Browning "What's in a name? That which we call a rose; By any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 scene 2 Roses have a long and colorful history. According to fossil evidence, the rose is 35 million years old. Today, there are over 30,000 varieties of roses and it has the most complicated family ... read more

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Have you ever wondered if what you know about rose is accurate?
 
Consider the following paragraphs and compare what you know to the latest info on roses.

"It was roses, roses all; the way". - Robert Browning
 
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose; By any other name would
 
smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 scene 2

Roses have a long and colorful history. According to fossil evidence,
 
the rose is 35 million years old. Today, there are over 30,000
 
varieties of roses and it has the most complicated family tree of any
 
known flower species.

The cultivation of roses most likely began in Asia around 5000 years
 
ago. They have been part of the human experience ever since and
 
mentions of the flower are woven into a great many tales from the
 
ancient world.

And there are so many beautiful stories that include roses through out
 
the ages that we all can recognize.

Greek mythology tells us that it was Aphrodite who gave the rose its
 
name, but it was the goddess of flowers, Chlloris, who created it. One
 
day while Chlloris was cleaning in the forest she found the lifeless
 
body of a beautiful nymph. To right this wrong Chlloris enlisted the
 
help of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who gave her beauty; then
 
called upon Dionysus, the god of wine, who added nectar to give her a
 
sweet scent. When it was their turn the three Graces gave Chloris
 
charm, brightness and joy. Then Zephyr, the West Wind, blew away the
 
clouds so that Apollo, the sun god, could shine and make the flower
 
bloom. And so the Rose was.

In another story, an ancient Hindu legend, Brahma (the creator of the
 
world) and Vishnu (the protector of the world) argued over whether
 
the lotus was more beautiful than the rose. Vishnu backed the rose,
 
while Brahma supported the lotus. But Brahma had never seen a rose
 
before and when he did he immediately recanted. As a reward Brahma
 
created a bride for Vishnu and called her Lakshmi she was created
 
from 108 large and 1008 small rose petals.

Several thousands of years later, on the other side of the world in
 
Crete , there are Frescoes which date to c. 1700BC illustrating a rose
 
with five-pedaled pink blooms. Discoveries of tombs in Egypt have
 
revealed wreaths made with flowers, with roses among them. The wreath
 
in the tomb of Hawara (discovered by the English archaeologist William
 
Flinders Petrie) dates to about AD 170, and represents the oldest
 
preserved record of a rose species still living.

Roses later became synonymous with the worst excesses of the Roman
 
Empire when the peasants were reduced to growing roses instead of
 
food crops in order to satisfy the demands of their rulers. The
 
emperors filed their swimming baths and fountains with rose-water and
 
sat on carpets of rose petals for their feasts and orgies. Roses were
 
used as confeti at celebrations, for medicinal purposes, and as a
 
source of perfume. Helliogabalus used to enjoy showering his guests
 
with rose petals which tumbled down from the ceiling during the
 
festivities.

During the fifteenth century, the factions fighting to control England
 
used the rose as a symbol. The white rose represented York , and the
 
red rose symbolized Lancaster . Not surprisingly, the conflict
 
between these factions became known as the War of the Roses.

In the seventeenth century roses were in such high demand that roses
 
and rose water were considered as legal tender. In this capacity they
 
were used as barter in the markets as well as for any payments the
 
common people had to make to royalty. Napoleon's wife Josephine loved
 
roses so much she established an extensive collection at Chateau de
 
Malmaison, an estate seven miles west of Paris . This garden of more
 
than 250 rose varieties became the setting for Piere Joseph Redoute's
 
work as a botanical illustrator and it was here Redoute completed his
 
watercolor collection "Les Rose," which is still considered one of the
 
finest records of botanical illustration.

Cultivated roses weren't introduced into Europe until the late
 
eighteenth century. These introductions came from China and were
 
repeat bloomers, making them of great interest to hybridizers who no
 
longer had to wait once a year for their roses to bloom.

From this introduction, experts today tend to divide all roses into
 
two groups. There are "old roses" (those cultivated in Europe before
 
1800) and "modern roses" (those which began to be cultivated in
 
England and France around the turn of the 19th century).

Until the beginning of the 19th century, all roses in Europe were
 
shades of pink or white. Our romantic symbol of the red rose first
 
came from China around 1800. Unusual green roses arrived a few decades
 
later.

Bright yellow roses entered the pallete around 1900. It was the
 
Frenchman Joseph Permet-Ducher who is credited with the discovery.
 
After more than 20 years of breeding roses in a search for a hardy
 
yellow variety, he luck changed when one day he simply stumbled across
 
a mutant yellow flower in a field. We have had yellow and orange roses
 
ever since

The rose is a phenomenal plant and is rightly known as 'the world's
 
favorite flower'. No other flower has ever experienced the same
 
popularity that the rose has enjoyed in the last fifth years. In
 
temperate climates, roses are more widely grown than any other
 
ornamental plant, and as cut flowers they are forever in fashion.

It has been estimated that 150 million plants are purchased by
 
gardeners worldwide every year, and sophisticated breeding programs
 
have produced a plant that dominates the world's cut flower market;
 
the annual crop is calculated in tons. Roses have also made a
 
tremendous contribution to the perfume industry.

Roses boast an ancient lineage, and they are intricately entwined in
 
our history and culture. As a motif, the rose has been and still is
 
depicted in many national emblems. It has been adopted by countless
 
political factions, and even by businesses and several international
 
events. It is no wonder so many of the beautiful rose varietals are
 
greatly appreciated and cultivated by hobby gardeners around the
 
world.

Of course, it's impossible to put everything about rose into just one
 
article. But you can't deny that you've just added to your
 
understanding about rose, and that's time well spent.

Author Bio:

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