A rose is a flower of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. A variety of color shades from yellow to red can be found in rose flowers. Out of the total 100 species, most belong to Asia and few of them originate in Europe. Just shades of flowers, the size of rose plants too vary greatly. There are miniature as well as climber varieties of rose. The word rose, originates from Latin, rosa. Making perfumes with roses is one of the important industry in today's times. The rose oil (Attar) used in making perfumes is prepared by crushing and steam distilling the rose petals.
Petals and hips of the rose flowers hold great importance in the preparation of medicines. Rose hip is the fruit of this flowering plant. It contains lots of nutrients including vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin K. The other nutrients contained in rose hips include pectin, bio-flavonoids and beta-carotene. The antioxidants present in the fruit help strengthen the immune system.
Rose water is among the most common products received by distillation from rose petals, and it is used in medicine, cosmetics, culinary and so on. Rose water has very pleasant taste and fragrance, and a high quality product includes only distilled water and pure rose essential oil. Top quality rose water was extremely valued in Ancient Persia and Egypt. In Ancient India rose water recipes were used for special occasions, and in Ancient Greece and the Middle East rose water was used to enhance the flavor of various exotic foods, especially deserts like the baklava and others.
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- Cultivation of roses first took place in China around 2,000 years ago. Later on, the cultivation of this flower began in India, Middle East, Persia and Europe. The activity of pruning roses is important in the process of cultivating them.
- the father of Botany Theophrastus (371-286 BC) first classified and identified plants. In his classic books Enquiry into plants and De Causis Plantarum (The causes of plants) he wrote about a "hundred-petaled rose" and called it centifolia (literally: hundred petals).
- From ancient times, the rose flower has been associated with the attributes of beauty and love.
- Roman Emperor Nero liked to shower his guests with fresh rose petals. According to the legend, the dense rose-petal cloud nearly suffocated some of the guests.
- The oldest garden rose is the Rosa Gallica Officinalis, the apothecary rose. The oldest garden rose classes include the Albas, Centifolias and Damasks.
- In the Middle Ages, it was customary for the wealthy to put rose petals and rose oil in their baths. Many noblewomen carried bouquets of fragrant flowers to cover body odors.
- The early Christians saw a correlation between the five petals of the Rosa sancta and the five wounds of Christ. The red rose stood for Christ's blood, while the white rose for the Virgin Mary.
- It was in the 17th century that French explorer Samuel de Champlain brought the first cultivated roses to North America.
- The rose is the official National Floral emblem of the United States. This legislation was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on October 7, 1986. The rose is also the state flower selected by Georgia, Iowa, New York, North Dakota and the District of Columbia.
- Three separate nationally conducted public opinion polls, dating from 1975-1986, found the rose to be the number-one choice of over 85% of those individuals surveyed.
- George Washington, the first U.S. President, was also the first U.S. rose breeder!
- Columbus discovered America because of a rose! It is written that on October 11, 1492, while becalmed in the Sargasso Sea, one of the crewmen picked a rose branch from the water. This sign of land renewed their hope for survival and gave the seafarers the courage to continue on to the New World.
- The first patent ever registered for a plant was a patent for a hybridized rose, which gave "ever-blooming" characteristics to the climbing rose. It was issued by the United States Patent Office on August 18th 1931 to Henry F. Bosenberg for his "Climbing or Trailing Rose".
- The largest rose ever bred was a pink rose measuring approximately 33 inches in diameter. It was bred by Nikita K. Rulhoksoffski from San Onofre, California. The world's largest rosebush is a white Lady Banksia located in Tombstone, Arizona. It's original root came over from Scotland in 1885. From a single trunk, which is nearly six feet in diameter, it spreads over an arbor that covers over 8,00 square feet, enough to shelter a crowd of 150 people.
- The world's oldest living rose is believed to be 1,000 years old. It grows on the wall of the Cathedral of Hildesheim in Germany and its presence is documented since A.D. 815. According to the legend, the rosebush symbolizes the prosperity of the city of Hildesheim; as long as it flourishes, Hildesheim will not decline. In 1945 allied bombers destroyed the cathedral, yet the bush survived. Its roots remained intact beneath the debris, and soon the bush was growing strong again.
- The largest private rose garden in the world is in Cavriglia, Italy, and holds over 7,500 different varieties of roses.
- The only rose known to have only four petals is Rosa Sericea, brought to Europe form the Himalayas at the end of the nineteenth century.
- The oldest representation of a rose is a fresco in the palace of Minos in Cnossos, Crete. It depicts a five-petaled pink rose dates to about 1450 B.C.
- At first, rose oil was added to medicine to mask their bitter taste. It was only afterwards that the medicinal virtues of rose oil were discovered.
- The first rose to leave the earth was as miniature rose called "Overnight Scentsation" that had been cultivated by IFF researcher Dr. Braja Mookherjee for experiments in space. The rose needed to be small to fit inside Astroculture, a plant growth chamber measuring 17 by 9 by 21 inch enclosure and developed for the middeck of the space shuttle to provides plants with the appropriate temperature, humidity, light, and nutrients during spaceflight. The purpose was to measure how low-gravity would influence the rose's smell.
- The buds of the smallest rose, "Si", are the size of a grain of rice.
- The apothecary rose, R. gallica officinalis, first recorded in the 13th century, was the foundation of a large industry near the city of Provins, France. The rose was believed to cure a multitude of diseases and Provins was an important center of rose confectionary, producing rose petal jam, Provinean rose honey and rose candy.
- Today, 150 million rose plants are purchased by gardeners worldwide each year.
- In current years, over 1,200,000,000 roses were purchased by U.S. flower buyers. This works out to a per capita consumption of 4.67 roses per person.
- 60% of the roses grown in the U.S. are produced in California.
- The rose is the favorite flower of 85% of Americans.
- There are nearly 900 acres of greenhouse dedicated to the production of fresh-cut roses in the U.S. One acre of greenhouse rose production in the U.S. is valued at about one million dollars, which includes the value of the plants, greenhouse structure and land.
In many ways, the rose flower is different from that of a standard bloom/flower. The rose flower possesses several ovaries as opposed to the single one of standard blooms. Ovaries are positioned in a cup-like structure called hypanthium. Leaves of the rose plants are borne alternately on stems. These 5-15 cm leaves possess a serrate margin. The petals of rose flowers are typically five in number. However, the hybrid ones have a greater number of petals. With the male and female reproductive parts present in the same flower, it is amongst the perfect flowers.
Sepals and Petals: The sepals and petals are actually the modified leaves of rose flowers. The protective leaves which wrap the buds of rose flowers are known as sepals. As development of the flower takes place, petals begin to unfurl. This process leads to sepals turning backwards. The color and fragrance of petals help in attracting pollinating insects.
Stamens: The stamen is formed of male reproductive parts. Filaments which constitute the stamen have anthers at their tips. Pollen grains are present inside these anthers. Pollen grains of rose flowers are yellow in color.
Pistils: Female reproductive part of the flower is known as pistil. A long stalk (style) and stigma that is present at the tip are parts of pistils. The stigma is characterized by sticky parts where pollen grains get collected. The style is a hollow tube and ovaries are present at its bottom.
Hypanthium: The bulbous and green colored basal part of rose flower is known as hypanthium. This part of the flower is formed by the fusion of petals, sepals and stamens. A flat disk shaped structure present on top of hypanthium is the base of stamen.
The wild rose which is also known as prickly rose can grow up to 15 meters tall. As the name suggests, these flowers have characteristic prickly stems. The different species of wild roses are as follows: Rosa acicularis, Rosa blanda, Rosa arkansana and Rosa carolina. The petals of flowers are pink colored. Five petals of this kind of surround yellow colored center. These roses grow in areas with medium elevations including rocky slopes and open forests. The flowers of wild roses bloom in the month of June.
Roses are the best means to express our feelings since time immemorial. Indeed, it is a flower for everyone; a friend gifts a yellow rose to convey gratitude to another friend or a lover presents a red rose to simply express his love. Consequently, rose is the most sold flower worldwide. More than 100 species of rose are identified, out of which some are popularly grown in pots and home garden. If you are interested in growing roses and are planning to try your hands on it, we will help you get an idea on the different types of roses.
Be it the shape, size, color, blooming form or growing habit, the variability of roses cannot match with any other flower species. In terms of colors of roses, you can find white, pink, yellow, orange, shades of blue and black. Even there are different types of red roses, which vary in the color shade, number of petals and bloom shape. Frankly speaking, there is no other flower that is as diverse as a rose. Mention below is a list of rose types, which you can consider while selecting for your flower garden:
China Rose: Fill your garden from summer through late autumn with light fragrant, pink colored blooms by growing china rose. After opening, a china rose darkens, instead of fading its color like other roses. It cannot tolerate very cold temperatures, hence make sure you check the growing conditions prior to introducing it in your garden.
Climbing Rose: Climbing type of rose is very hardy and suitable for planting near fences and trellis. If left uncontrolled, the plant can reach a height of more than 20 feet. You can select one time blooming or repeated blooming variety. Climbing rose is not a true vine and you need to manually tie the stem to a supporting structure.
Damask Rose: A type of old garden rose, damask is popular for its strong fragrance, and vicious thorns present in the stems and underneath the leaves. Some cultivars of damask bloom once in a year, while others flower repeatedly. Damask rose is found in white, pink and red colors.
Floribunda Rose: This type of rose is delicate and borne singly or in clusters, as per the cultivar. Some varieties are excellent for planting wet climatic conditions. The most peculiar character of floribunda rose is its non-stop flowering during the growing season. Floribundas are best suited for planting in pots and as borders in flower beds.
Grandiflora Rose: Another popular garden rose variety is grandiflora that blooms continuously during the flowering months. The plant is tall and bears blooms in clusters. The growth habit and planting requirements of grandiflora are very similar to hybrid tea rose, except the flower size is larger in this type.
Hybrid Tea Rose: A widely cultivated fragrant and large variety of rose, hybrid tea grows to a height of about 2 meters. Each rose bloom is supported by a long and straight stem, which makes it an excellent cut flower. You can plant white, yellow, orange, pink, red, lavender and multicolored hybrid tea variety.
Miniature Rose: As the name suggests, miniature rose is small type, with plant growing to a height of 1 - 1 ½ feet. The blooms are variant colored and tiny, with some species measuring only ½ an inch diameter. Miniature rose grows well in pots and containers.
Provence Rose: Also known as cabbage rose, you can easily identify a provence rose from its rich fragrance and numerous petals that are arranged in globular shape. The plant is shrubby and grows to about 2 m height. Provence rose is also cultivated on a large scale for extraction of rose oil.
Shrub Rose: If you have little time for growing and caring for roses bushes, then select shrub rose (or landscape rose). In comparison to other modern rose varieties, it requires less care and maintenance, but fills the yard with a heady fragrance and vivid colored blooms. Another advantage of shrub rose is repeated flowering, which is not so in case of a hybrid tea type.
Tree Rose: The growth habit of this rose type is more or less similar to the regular tree. It has a trunk like stem that bears flowers at the top branches. Most hobbyists prefer growing tree roses as a background to other potted flowers in the garden. In contrary to this rose type, there are also ground cover rose variety that hardly grows up to 1 foot, but spreads to large areas.
If you do not have roses in your garden, you are missing one of the most elegant flowers whose beauty is incomparable. So, don't delay, select and plant those types of roses that suit the climatic conditions in your area and be ready to enjoy the enchanting blooms.