Mom is secretly proud of her rose bushes, tho she tries not to show it. Even as i type this.. a whiff of their fresh morning fragrance drifts into the room.
Ok, St Valentine is long dead and yet rose prices are on the hike up again! People willing or unwillingly try and afford them for their loved ones as they are love/romantic symbols as old as time.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose; By any other name would smell as sweet? William Shakespeare
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, Chloris, who created it. One day while Chloris was cleaning in the forest she found the lifeless body of a beautiful nymph. To right this wrong Chloris 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.
English Rose
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.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.
Throughout the history of civilization, no other flower has been so immortalized and integrated into daily life as the rose. From poetry to music, from festivities to wars, Mother?s Day to St Valentine?s Day, and birth to death, the rose has held a unique role. There are over 4000 roses listed in this monograph, and they are testimony enough to convince even the ultimate skeptic that roses have a rich tapestry of evolution stretching way back in time. Just how the genus Rosa managed to, and continues to, evolve into one of the world?s favorite flowers is an interesting horticultural puzzle.
With a history like that, no wonder one man's love affair with roses never ends.
