The History of Roses
Roses have a
long and colourful history. They have been
symbols of love, beauty, war, and politics.
The rose is, according to fossil evidence,
35 million years old. In nature, the genus
Rosa has some 150 species spread throughout
the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to
Mexico and including northern Africa. Garden
cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years
ago, probably in China. During the Roman
period, roses were grown extensively in the
Middle East. They were used as confetti at
celebrations, for medicinal purposes, and as
a source of perfume. Roman nobility
established large public rose gardens in the
south of Rome. After the fall of the Roman
Empire, the popularity of roses seemed to
rise and fall depending on gardening trends
of the time.
During the fifteenth century, the rose was
used as a symbol for the factions fighting
to control England. The white rose
symbolized York, and the red rose symbolized
Lancaster, as a result, the conflict became
known as the "War of the Roses."
Roses were in such high demand during the
seventeenth century that royalty considered
roses or rose water as legal tender, and
they were often used as barter and for
payments. Napoleon's wife Josephine
established an extensive collection of roses
at Chateau de Malmaison, an estate seven
miles west of Paris in the 1800s. This
garden became the setting for Pierre Joseph
Redoute's work as a botanical illustrator.
In 1824, he completed his watercolour
collection "Les Rose," which is still
considered one of the finest records of
botanical illustration.
It wasn't until the late eighteenth century
that cultivated roses were introduced into
Europe from China. Most modern-day roses can
be traced back to this ancestry. These
introductions were repeat bloomers, making
them unusual and of great interest to
hybridisers, setting the stage for breeding
work with native roses to select for
hardiness and a long bloom season.
Click on
Rose Colour Meanings
for more information on roses
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Rose Colour Meanings
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History of
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