Rose
It is called the queen of flowers, and is one of the most popular flowers
in the world. Its intoxicating fragrance, soft petals, and sharp thorns, make it
easily distinguishable from other flowers. The rose is one of the most diverse
and complex plants in the floral kingdom, and there are over 30,000 varieties of
roses, including bushes, hedges, miniatures, climbers, and vines. While most
are thorny, species without any thorns have also been bred today. Roses come in
almost every colour imaginable, from reds to pinks, whites, oranges, purples,
yellows, and even a red so deep that it’s almost black! Roses are generally
classified as wild roses, old garden roses, and modern roses.
Wild roses are those that occur naturally,
with no hybridizing or crossbreeding. Authentic wild roses are single blooms,
with only five petals. These hardy flowers that grow readily in all kinds of
soil, require low maintenance, and are found in North America, Asia, and Europe.
Old roses, or historic roses are those species grown in Europe before the
1800’s.They include Alba roses, thought to have been grown by the Romans, the
Damask rose that originated in the Eastern Mediterranean, and Gallica roses,
grown by the Persians as early as the 12thcentury B.C. These flowers don’t
bloom continually like modern roses, but have a glorious fragrance. Modern roses,
or hybrid tea roses are the ones that we are all most familiar with. They have
been developed by cross breeding different types of roses to create new varieties.
These roses have different colours, different sized bushes, stems, and thorns.
The rose is so closely linked to different cultures, religions, and
civilizations, that it has inspired artists, poets, and writers through the
ages. The word rose has come from the Latin word ‘rosa,’ meaning red, and the
flower has been a symbol of love and beauty since ancient times. 
The rose has been around for a staggering 35
million years, and embalmed rose buds were found along with the mummies of
Ancient Egypt. Archaeologists have found paintings of roses on the wall of the
tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose IV, who died in the fourteenth century B.C.
The first written reference to the rose flower has been found in Iraq, and it
dates back to 3000 B.C. Ancient Roman rulers were so bewitched by roses that
they cultivated it instead of growing crops to feed the common people. The Romans
used rose petals extensively – they were sprinkled in their bath water, lined
on their bed sheets, dining tables and floors, and were added to their food and
drink. They were also used as perfume, in confetti, and as a valuable herb. The
Roman emperor Nero liked to shower honoured guests with fresh rose petals.
According to some accounts, these clouds of rose-petals sometimes nearly
suffocated some of Nero’s guests!
The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar adorned his palace with roses. They were
extensively grown in his palace gardens for their oil, and the king was known
to fill his mattress with rose petals. Pliny the Elder, a Roman historian and
writer, wrote that charred rose petals were useful to darken the eyebrows, and
suggested that dried, powdered rose petals should be sprinkled about the body
as a deodorant. In Ancient Rome, a rose would be placed above the doorway of a
room where secret or confidential matters were discussed. The phrase ‘sub
rosa,’ or ‘under the rose’, meaning to keep a secret, is believed to be derived
from this ancient Roman practice. The rose has been a symbol of secrecy in
other, more modern societies too. 
In sixteenth-century England, servants, valets, and inn workers, wore a
rose behind their ear to indicate that the wearer heard everything, but repeated
nothing, thus protecting the secrets of customers. In Germany, roses in a
dining room suggested that diners could speak freely without fear that their
secrets would travel beyond the walls of the room. 
The Empress Josephine, wife of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte established
the first rose garden at Chateau Malmaison, outside Paris in 1798. The garden
had approximately 250 varieties of roses. Napoleon, who was very supportive of
his wife’s interest in roses, ordered his soldiers to bring home any new rose
they found blooming on foreign shores. The fame of Josephine’s garden spread so
far and wide that even when England was at war with France, rose plants for Josephine
were exempt from the hostilities, and were allowed to cross blockades! Josephine’s
enthusiasm for roses was contagious, and ignited an interest in rose growing
and hybridizing across Europe. Josephine also commissioned Pierre Joseph
Redoute, Marie Antoinette’s court painter, to paint a series of rose portraits,
which are considered some of the most beautiful rose paintings ever created.
Josephine often carried a rose in her hand, which she raised to her lips when
smiling, since she was rather self conscious of her imperfect teeth.
The War of the Roses was a destructive, and
bitter civil war in England fought from 1455-1487. It was caused by two warring
families who wanted to control England - the House of Yorkand the House of
Lancaster. The Yorks used the symbol of a white rose on their crest, and the
Lancasters used a red rose to mark their belongings, and this is how the war
got its name. The families reconciled after 30years when Henry VII of Lancaster
married a princess of the House of York. They began the famous Tudor dynasty. A
new hybrid rose with red and white petals became the symbol of peace. It was
called ‘York and Lancaster’.
The rose, which was designated the official
flower and floral emblem of the United States of America in 1986, was in a way,
responsible for its discovery too. The crew on the ship of explorer Christopher
Columbus found and retrieved a rose branch floating on the ocean on October 11,
1492. This reassured the tired sailors that land was near. The very next day,
Columbus discovered America! The rose is the state flower of the American
states of Georgia, Iowa, New York, North Dakota, and the District of Columbia.
The month of June is designated ‘National Rose Month’ in the United States. The
first president of the USA, George Washington, was a rose breeder, and named a
rose he bred after his mother.
Confucius wrote in 500BC, that there were
hundreds of roses growing in the Chinese Emperor’s imperial gardens, and
mentioned that the royal library contained hundreds of books about roses. It is
said that the rose gardeners of the Han dynasty (207 B.C.-A.D. 220) were so obsessed
with these flowers that their rose gardens encroached into agricultural land.
Finally, the emperor had to order some rose gardens to be removed so that food could
be grown for the people.
According to the ‘Thousand and One Arabian Nights’,
the Caliph of Baghdad served a jam made from roses that captivated anyone who
ate it. There are several interesting mythical stories associated with the
history of the rose flower.
According to Greek mythology, Aphrodite, the
Greek Goddess of love is believed to have made the rose from her tears and the blood
of Adonis, her lover. Another myth blames the God Eros, or Cupid, for the
rose’s thorny stem. According to this tale, Cupid was enjoying the fragrance of
the rose, which had a smooth, long stem, when he was stung by a bee hidden
amongst its petals. To punish the flower, Cupid angrily shot his arrows into
its stem. This, according to the legend, is why the rose is cursed forever to have
arrowhead-shaped thorns on its stem.
According to Biblical stories, the white rose
that grew in the Garden of Eden turned red as it blushed with shame when Adam
and Eve fell from grace. During the Middle Ages, Christians believed that roses
in heaven turned red when kissed by the Virgin Mary, and the spilled blood of
St. Francis of Assisi turned into roses when it touched the ground. The rosary
(derived from the Latin word ‘rosarium’, meaning ‘garland of roses’) is a Roman
Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary. The term rosary also denotes the prayer
beads used to count the prayers that make up the rosary, as well as the
sequence of prayers. One of the names of Jesus in the Bible is ‘the rose of
Sharon’.
In an ancient Hindu myth, Brahma the creator of the world, and Vishnu, the
protector of the world, once had an argument over whether the lotus or the rose
was more beautiful. Vishnu praised the rose, but Brahma believed that the lotus
was unsurpassed in beauty. But Brahma had never seen a rose before, and when he
did, he was simply enchanted with its beauty. As a reward, Brahma created a
bride for Vishnu and called her Lakshmi. This lovely goddess was created from
108 large, and 1008 small rose petals! Roses have been grown in India since time
immemorial.
‘Kashyapa’s Agricultural Treatise’ (800 B.C.E.)
lists the rose among other plants and trees that a king should plant within his
kingdom. When Alexander the Great invaded India, in 327 B.C., it is said that he
was amazed at the variety of plants he found, and he sent back some rose plants
to his mentor Aristotle. In 1300 A.D. a Muslim traveler and chronicler, Rashid-ud-din,
who visited Gujarat wrote that “the people were very wealthy and happy and grow
no less than 70 kinds of roses”. Domingo Paes and Fernao Nunez, two Portuguese travelers
who travelled to the kingdom of Vijayanagar around1537 mention seeing
plantations of roses, and bazaars where baskets laden with roses were sold, as
loose flowers and as garlands. They noted that men and women from all walks of life
adorned themselves with roses.
The King of Vijayanagar wore white robes
embroidered with golden roses. The travellers mentioned that every day, the
king would shower white roses on his favourite courtiers, elephants, and horses!
Abdur Razzak, a Muslim diplomat from Persia, who had visited the same kingdom
in 1443, wrote, “Roses are sold everywhere. These people cannot live without
roses, which they consider as important and necessary as food.”
The Mughal rulers, who loved gardening, popularised
rose cultivation in India. The first emperor, Babur, (1483-1530) brought camel
loads of musk and damask roses into Hindustan from Afghanistan. Babur was so
captivated by roses that he gave all his daughters rose names – Gulchihra
(rosecheeked), Gulrukh (rose-faced), Gulbadan (rose-body) and Gulrang (rose
colour). The word ‘gul’ means rose in Persian. The Emperor Akbar sometimes took
camel loads of roses to give to the wives of his allies. Manucci, the 17th
century Italian traveler was amazed to see that Mughal nobles not only used huge
quantities of rose water and oil on themselves, but even rubbed their horses
with them! The Mughal Empress Nur Jahan’s mother was the one who discovered
rose ‘attar’ or perfume.
India’s first prime minister, Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru always wore a red rose in his buttonhole, and it came to
symbolise him. The lovely rose even inspired Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our Nation.
He said poetically, “A rose does not preach – it simply spreads its fragrance.”„
Do you know?
* Roses of different colours signify
different emotions. Red rose stands for love and passion and is the rose of lovers.
Yellow roses signify friendship, pink roses signify admiration, and white roses
signify purity and innocence.
* The rose family also includes pears,
apples, cherries, plums, apricots and almonds.
* Roses are named after famous people. The
Oprah Rose, named for media personality Oprah Winfrey has ruby red blossoms. A
light pink historic old rose is named after Napoleon Bonaparte.
* The oldest rose plant in the world has
grown for over 1,000 years on the wall of Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany. It
is a symbol of the city’s prosperity – legend has it that Hildesheim will never
decline as long as the rose keeps blooming. During World War II, the rose not only
survived bomb attacks in 1945 that destroyed the cathedral, but it grew new shoots
just a few weeks later!
* Some of the roses named after Abraham Lincoln
include varieties such as ‘President Lincoln’ the ‘Mr. Lincoln,’ and the
‘Honest Abe,’ a miniature moss rose.
* The Rose Valley (also called The Valley of Roses)
is a region in central Bulgaria, where the famed Bulgarian oil-bearing rose grows.
Bulgaria’s tradition of producing essential oils dates back to the 17th
century and is a source of national pride for the country.
* The celebrated playwright William Shakespeare
refers to roses more than 50 times throughout his writings. A dark pink rose
called ‘William Shakespeare’ is named after him.
* King Midas, king of Phrygia, famous for
turning anything he touched to gold, loved roses and planted so many vast
gardens of them, that his country was called the land of roses.
