For four thousand years and more the world has extolled the rose as Nature's superb floral creation. Dean Hole said "Her supremacy has been acknowledged, like Truth itself, always, everywhere, by all." From Sappho to modern times all poets have lauded the beauty and perfume of the rose; their highest praise of beauty has often been expressed by comparison with it.

Roses flourished in the gardens of Babylon earlier than 2000 B.C. The Greeks and Romans used the rose at their feasts and in symbols both as decoration and as a charm against many evils, including alcoholic intoxication. Rose blooms were sold in large numbers from extensive gardens devoted entirely to their culture. Garlands of roses were hung at all rejoicings and heads were crowned with rose wreaths. Rose petals were lavishly strewn on beds and floors, and in the paths of favoured people. Cleopatra, in her magnificence, had rose petals eighteen inches deep on her floors. Huge sums of money were spent in purchasing blooms and petals; Nero is said to have spent the equivalent of about £80,000 for roses for one feast alone.

Wines, conserves, perfumes, oils, medicines, lotions, embalming agents, adornments, honours the rose came to be used for them all. Rose-water was the only perfume for centuries, and it was also used for washing and purifying.

We find references to the rose in writings of all Northern Hemisphere lands England, America, China, Persia, India, Iceland, Lapland, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Syria, Greece, and Egypt and among them all there is never a questioning of the supremacy of "the Queen of Flowers". This title was first bestowed by Sappho, about 600 B.C., in the following words:

The Rose (mankind will agree),
The Rose the Queen of Flowers should be;
The pride of plants, the grace of bowers,
The blush of meads, the eye of flowers;
Its beauties charm the gods above;
Its fragrance is the breath of love.

In the Authorized Version of the Bible the rose is mentioned only twice "I am the rose of Sharon" (Song of Solomon ii. 1), and ". . . the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" (Isaiah xxxv. 1) but the word "rose" does not, in either case, refer to any member of the botanical group genus Rosa. Some authorities identify it with Narcissus tazetta, a sweetly scented flower of a bulbous plant, others with Hibiscus syriacus and others with Hypericum calycinum.

In the Apocrypha, in dealing with the time of the Babylonian captivity, there are several references to members of genus Rosa; for example, "Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds" (Wisdom of Solomon ii. 8).

In Egypt the rose appears to have been unknown until about 300 B.C., but it gradually replaced the lotus as the most favoured flower. It had probably been taken to Egypt by the Greeks. Many Egyptian tombs dating from A.D. 100 to 300 have been found containing garlands of roses, rosebuds, and rose petals. They have usually been pink and white, but occasionally there have been single yellow blooms, probably R. foetida, the Yellow Austrian Briar.

Feasting and intoxication were disapproved by the Church of Rome, and the rose fell into ecclesiastical disfavour for many years because of its association with these excesses. Later it was used frequently as an emblem. The Golden Rose of the Church of Rome, dating from the fourteenth century, is blessed by the Pope on Laetare Sunday and is occasionally bestowed on persons or institutions of special merit in the Roman Catholic faith. In the Middle Ages, roses were used in crowning priests, wreathing candles, and adorning shrines.

These are only the most notable instances of documentary references to the rose in what might be called its social relationships with early history. There are many others, some less outstanding and some less authentic.

The rose has many associations with the legends and myths so seriously regarded by the ancient polytheist Greeks and later by the Romans.

The dog-rose (R. ccmina) takes its name from the virtue attributed by the ancients to its root, as a cure for hydrophobia. Pliny states that the gods revealed this, in a dream, to a mother whose son had been bitten by an affected dog.

On finding her favourite nymph dead, Flora, the goddess of flowers, appealed to all the gods of Olympus to transform the corpse into a flower surpassing all others in beauty. In response, Venus bestowed form, Apollo gave light, Bacchus gave nectar, Vertumnus gave perfume, Pomona gave fruit, and Flora herself gave colour. In this way was the rose created.

The rose, the emblem of love, was given by Cupid as a bribe to Harpocrates, the god of silence, to obtain secrecy for the meetings of the other gods. Hence the rose became the symbol of secrecy and the traditional flower to be suspended from the ceiling in chambers where clandestine meetings were held. So came the term "sub rosa", privately, or under the rose, still used today. Later a rose or an arrangement of roses was often carved on the ceiling, from which has evolved the frequently seen centre-piece of ceilings, even though the carvings or mouldings bear no resemblance to a rose.

The moss rose is said to have received the adornment of its "moss" from the angel entrusted with the care of flowers. The angel slumbered in the shade of a rose-bush and, on waking, said, "Most beautiful of my children, I thank thee for thy refreshing odour and cooling shade; could you now ask any favour, how willingly would I grant it!"

"Adorn me then with a new charm," said the spirit of the rose-bush.

The red single rose with its five petals was chosen to represent the five wounds of Christ, and the white rose the virginity of Mary.

The red rose is said to denote love; the white rose, innocence; the pink rose, beauty or youth; the yellow rose, silence or jealousy; a dark crimson rose, mourning.

Aphrodite embalmed Hector's body with oil of roses.

Rosiere tells of a custom in France, dating from about A.D. 520, where each year the most deserving young girl is rewarded, amidst great festivity, with a crown of roses and a sum of money. It is said that the Duke of Guise, despite his prowess as a soldier, would faint at the sight of a rose, that Bacon would become infuriated, and Marie de Medici, Queen of France in the early part of the seventeenth century, would not tolerate roses, even in pictures. These are but a few of countless tales that have grown up round the rose, giving it an unparalleled position amongst all flowers.

When we turn to heraldry, architecture, and art we can feel a little more realistic. The rose has been adopted as the floral emblem of England. About 1277 the first Earl of Lancaster, second son of Richard III, who had acquired, with his wife, the Province of Champagne, was sent by the King of France to Provins to avenge the murder of the mayor of the city. On his return to England he took for his device the red rose of Provins. This was probably the damask rose, and later became famous as the Red Rose of Lancaster. Henry III and the Duke of Guise, who had such an aversion to roses, were bitter enemies.

The rose figures prominently in English heraldic arms. Four types are recognized:

In heraldic terminology the "conventional" rose has five displayed petals. A rose when "slipped" has only a stalk added. There is usually at least one leaf as well, and it is then said to be "slipped and leaved". "Stalked and leaved" implies that it has a longer stalk and several leaves. A "chaplet of roses" is composed of four roses at equal distances round a circle of leaves, or it may consist entirely of roses; in the days of chivalry it was granted to gallant knights for acts of courtesy.

Marks of cadency distinguish the arms of a son from those of his father. A seventh son bears his father's arms with a small conventional rose in the chief centre point. Many other forms of differentiation by means of the rose are used in Royal Heraldry. It is by far the most commonly used flower, the thistle ranking next.

The Reverend J. H. Pemberton writes that when Edward IV of the House of York married Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian knight, the manor of Pyrgo was made over to her and her adherence to the House of York was to be attested by a grateful act. Elizabeth held the manor on payment annually of a certain fee: that of presenting the King every year in the rose month with a white rose on the feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist. This was a yearly reminder to Elizabeth and evidence to the King's supporters that, although she was once the wearer of the Red Rose, now as Queen Consort of Edward IV she belonged to the house of the White Rose.

The Wars of the Roses, fought during the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III, ended with the defeat and death of Yorkist Richard III at Bosworth. Rivalry between the two houses ceased with the marriage of Henry VII of Lancaster and Elizabeth of York in i486. The York and Lancaster Rose is a variegated sport of R. damascena.

Many English sovereigns have included the rose in their personal badges. Edward I used a golden heraldic rose stalked proper, Henry IV a red rose, Edward IV a white Rose-en-Soleil, Henry VII and Henry VIII a Tudor Rose crowned, Edward VI a Tudor Rose impaling a pomegranate, Elizabeth a Tudor Rose with the motto Rosa sine sfina (a rose without a thorn), the Stuarts a thistle and a rose dimidiated (that is, vertically halved and the two outer halves conjoined) and crowned, while Anne chose a rose and thistle growing from the same stem.

Anne was the last British monarch to adopt a personal badge. From her time the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland have had their own badges settled by Royal Warrant. The United Kingdom uses the united red and white rose, thistle and shamrock growing from the same stalk and crowned. England has the red and white rose, crowned, slipped, and leaved.

The King's Colour of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards still uses Anne's badge. The Yeomen of the Guard and the Yeomen Warders of the Tower wear the badge of the United Kingdom on their breasts and backs.

The rose has been used in many instances for rents, but this, of course, bears no relation to any intrinsic value. Part of the rent paid by Queen Elizabeth's Lord Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton, for Ely Place was a red rose. The quit-rent for the Star Hotel at Worcester was "one red rose delivered on the 24th of June each year". In Manheim, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a yearly rent of one red rose is still paid for the use of ground on which a Lutheran church is maintained.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...