Quick Rose Facts

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 to 1986, found the rose to be the number one choice of over 85 percent of those individuals surveyed.

George Washington, our first president, was also our first U.S. rose breeder!

In 1994, over 1,200,000,000 roses were purchased by U.S. flower buyers. This works out to a per capita consumption of 4.67 per person.

The rose is native to the United States. The oldest fossilized imprint of a rose was left on a slate deposit in Florissant, Colorado, which is estimated to be 35 million years old.

There are nearly 900 acres of greenhouse area dedicated to the production of fresh cut roses in the U.S.

About 60% of the roses grown in the U.S. are produced in California.

One acre of greenhouse rose production in the U.S. is valued at about one million dollars, including value of plants, greenhouse structure and land.

The most popular rose holidays in the U.S. are Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas.

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.

History
– 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).
– 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.
– 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. More about Rose history.

Superlatives
–  The oldest garden rose is the Rosa Gallica Officinalis, the apothecary rose. The oldest garden rose classes include the Albas, Centifolias and Damasks. See Old Garden Roses and Famous rose types.
– 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 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. More about the Cavriglia rose garden and other famous rose gardens.
– 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 roses, are the size of a grain of rice.

Rose industry
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.
– 60% of the roses grown in the U.S. are produced in California.
– The rose is the favorite flower of 85% of Americans.

America’s Favorite Flower

Universally accepted as living symbols of love, friendship, success and peace, roses are becoming more and more popular as gifts for all occasions and, as well, for spur-of-the-moment, everyday expressions of good feelings. They are being used as birthday and anniversary gifts, to decorate a hostess table, to say “thank you” for a job well done, or to say “I love you” at a most unexpected time.

The classic lines and beauty of the rose appeal to just about everyone, whether man or woman, modern or traditional, young or old. A rose gift is the perfect answer for the person who “has everything.” It’s always the right size, shape and color, and it’s never too fattening. What’s more, the size of a rose bouquet can be adjusted to fit any pocketbook.

Symbol of Celebration

Roses have been a beautiful symbol of celebration in all cultures. Nothing expresses personal sentiments better than roses, and they’re always in style. Whatever color or size you choose, roses are perfect and perfectly beautiful. Who can ever forget the first time they received roses?

Roses in the U.S.

The rose has been selected by Georgia, Iowa, New York, North Dakota and the District of Columbia as their official flower. Given the tremendous popularity of roses among Americans, it’s no wonder that resolutions were introduced in Congress in 1986 to name the rose the National Flower.

The Christmas Rose

Roses always make beautiful and timely gifts, and they fit in especially well during the holiday season. According to legend, the rose actually came to be associated with Christmas on the night that Christ was born. As the very touching story of the Christmas rose goes, a little shepherdess was saddened because she had no gift to offer the Child of Bethlehem. Maintaining vigil over her sheep, she wept and wept – and her tears soaked the ground where she stood.

Suddenly an angel appeared, touched the tear-softened earth, and the ground sprang alive with beautiful roses. Immediately the girl gathered a magnificent bouquet of these Christmas roses and joyfully carried them to Christ’s manger. Just as soon as He laid eyes on them, the Holy Child turned from the gems and gold of the Wise Men and extended His tiny hands in the direction of the flowers.

Roots

Roses are native to the United States. Rose fossils that have been carbon dated some 35 million years old have been found in Montana and Oregon. There are 30,000 or more rose varieties known today and no other flower has such a complicated family tree. The experts divide all roses into two groups, “old roses,” or those cultivated in Europe before 1800 (the red rose falls into this category); and “modern roses,” which began to be cultivated in England and France around the turn of the 19th century. In olden times, roses bloomed only once a year. Now, though, roses are available to us through florist shops every single day of the year.

Roses Throughout History

Throughout history, roses were used in incredibly extravagant ways. The Romans thought nothing of carpeting their huge banquet halls with rose petals, and it is said that Cleopatra once received her beloved Marc Antony in a room literally knee-deep in rose petals.

Acclaim for the Rose

The rose has been acclaimed in an almost endless number of ways. For example:

The rose is the only flower to which a garden has been totally devoted on the grounds of the United Nations, on the White House grounds in Washington, D.C., and in thousands of public parks throughout the nation.

The month of June has been set aside as National Rose Month since 1969.

The fourth week in June has been designated by the Governor of Indiana as “A Rose for Friendship Week” due to the almost single-handed efforts of J. B. Hoy, a semi-retired businessman.

The rose inspires fashion, interior design, sculpture and architecture. It is the design theme for countless patterns of silver, china, wallpaper, carpet and clothing. The “bed of roses” is one of the most popular motifs for spreads and coverlets.

Fairy tales carry themes of roses to children. Grimm’s Beauty and the Beast, for example, characterizes the rose that Beauty’s father picked in the Beast’s castle garden. In Alice in Wonderland, the gardeners painted white roses red to please the Queen of Hearts.

Roses and Royalty

The rose is called the “Queen of Flowers.” While roses are readily available to all of us, they also have been known to “hob nob” with royalty. The King of Sweden, for example, sent Silvia Sommerlath, now his wife and Sweden’s Queen, one dozen yellow roses every day during a four-year romance. That adds up to 1,461 dozen . . . or 17,532 individual flowers.

Queen Elizabeth and Princess Grace of Monaco are among those who have had roses named after them.

Rose Stamp

The rose was first honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1978 with its very own stamp. It’s a first class stamp that features illustrations of two award-winning roses.

The Quest for the Perfect Rose

Today’s roses are the result of centuries of genetic reshuffling, the work of both nature and man. Rose hybridizers have been able to combine and recombine genes for constant improvement. The results have been new colors, forms, textures, habits and fragrances, more vigor and disease resistance.

Most of the roses currently on the market primarily have been produced by the work of about 50 professional hybridizers. Each one cross-pollinates thousands of roses every year in hopes of finding that “perfect” one. The number of possible genetic combinations for new roses is mind boggling, but the odds have been placed at about 100,000 to 1 against any specific cross-fertilization producing an outstanding new rose.

George Washington – Our First Rose Breeder

George Washington, our first president, was our first rose breeder as well. Washington laid out his own garden at Mt. Vernon and filled it with his own selections of roses. He named one of his varieties after his mother and it is still being grown today.

The World’s Largest Rosebush

The world’s largest rosebush is located in a city named Tombstone in Arizona. Planted from a slip from another rosebush in the late 18th century, its trunk is nearly six feet around.

When in full bloom, this rosebush has more than 200,000 blossoms – and its branches spread out six feet thick over an arbor under which more than 150 people can be seated comfortably.

The Rose in Music

Some 4,000 songs have been written about roses including:

Rose of Tralee
The Last Rose of Summer
Red Roses for a Blue Lady
Everything’s Comin’ Up Roses
Ramblin’ Rose
Moonlight and Roses
Primrose Lane
My Wild Irish Rose
To a Wild Rose
Only a Rose
Yellow Rose of Texas
San Antonio Rose
Second Hand Rose
Mighty Like a Rose
Rose of Washington Square
Days of Wine and Roses
I Didn’t Promise You a Rose Garden
When She Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Red, Red Rose
Mexicalli Rose

Interesting Facts about Roses

The rose is the favorite flower of 85% of Americans.

In 1986, then President Ronald Reagan signed legislation making the rose the official National Flower of the United States.

George Washington bred roses at his home.

A fossilized rose, which was 35 million years old, was found in Florissant, Colorado.

Over 900 acres of greenhouse roses are harvested in the United States every year. 60% of these are grown in California.

Florists sell millions of roses each year in the United States. The two biggest days for sales are Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. Christmas is the third highest day for rose sales.

Columbus’ crew picked a rose branch out of the ocean on October 11, 1492. This signaled the presence of land. The very next day, Columbus discovered America.

Rose hips contain more Vitamin C than any other fruit or vegetable.

Ancient Romans believed that white roses grew where the tears of Venus fell when she was mourning Adonis.

Shakespeare referred to roses over fifty times in his works.

Mythology says that roses grew thorns when Cupid accidentally shot an arrow into a rose garden.

The oldest rose in the world has flourished for over 1,000 years on the wall of Hildeshiem

Cathedral in Germany.

For centuries, roses have inspired love and brought beauty to those who have received them. In fact, the rose’s rich heritage dates back thousands of years. The Society of American Florists compiled this list of interesting rose facts from a variety of sources:

More Interesting Facts about Roses

People have been passionate about roses since the beginning of time. In fact, it is said that the floors of Cleopatra’s palace were carpeted with delicate rose petals, and that the wise and knowing Confucius had a 600 book library specifically on how to care for roses.

Wherefore art thou rose? In the readings of Shakespeare, of course. He refers to roses more than 50 times throughout his writings.

1,000 years old. That’s the age the world’s oldest living rose is thought to be. Today it continues to flourish on the wall of the Hildesheim Cathedral of Germany.

Why white roses are so special is no mystery – it’s a myth. Perhaps it started with the Romans who believed white roses grew where the tears of Venus fell as she mourned the loss of her beloved Adonis. Myth also has it that Venus’ son Cupid accidentally shot arrows into the rose garden when a bee stung him, and it was the “sting” of the arrows that caused the roses to grow thorns. And when Venus walked through the garden and pricked her foot on a thorn, it was the droplets of her blood which turned the roses red.

It’s official – the rose is New York’s state flower.

The rose is a legend in it’s own. The story goes that during the Roman empire, there was an incredibly beautiful maiden named Rhodanthe. Her beauty drew many zealous suitors who pursued her relentlessly. Exhausted by their pursuit, Rhodanthe was forced to take refuge from her suitors in the temple of her friend Diana. Unfortunately, Diana became jealous. And when the suitors broke down her temple gates to get near their beloved Rhodanthe she also became angry, turning Rhodanthe into a rose and her suitors into thorns.

Dolly Parton may be known for her music and theme park. But rose lovers know her for the orange red variety bearing her name.

A rose by any other name… according to Greek Mythology, it was Aphrodite who gave the rose its name.

While the rose may bear no fruit, the rose hips (the part left on the plant after a rose is done blooming) contain more Vitamin C than almost any other fruit or vegetable.

The rose is a symbol of times. In fact, it’s the official National Floral Emblem of the United States.

Leave it to the romantic French to be the ones to first deliver roses. It was in the seventeenth century that French explorer Samuel deChamplain brought the first cultivated roses to North America.

Roses are truly ageless. Recently, archaeologists discovered the fossilized remains of wild roses over 40 million years old.

The people of ancient Greece used roses to accessorize. On festive occasions they would adorn themselves with garlands of roses, and splash themselves with rose-scented oil.

Napoleon’s wife Josephine so adored roses, she grew more than 250 varieties.

For the past 30 years and counting, June has been the National Rose Month in the United States.

 

The Gift of Love

People everywhere love roses. A charming ritual incorporating roses is a central part of some wedding ceremonies held at a church in Tarzana, California. The minister presents a red rose to both the bride and groom. The couple is then instructed to exchange roses, thereby giving to each other the symbolic gift of love as their first gift as husband and wife. At the end of the ceremony, they are advised to resolve any conflicts they may have in the years ahead by presenting each other with red roses.

More and more couples maintain this tradition throughout their married lives, presenting each other one rose for each year of marriage on every anniversary.

Rose Buying Tips

All roses are beautiful, but all roses are not necessarily alike. To be sure you get the very best, take your business to a florist.

A simple case of supply and demand affects the price of Valentine’s Day roses:

Valentine’s Day inspires the heaviest demand for long-stemmed roses, and several rosebuds must be sacrificed to create a single long-stemmed rose.

After the Christmas season demand for red roses is filled, growers need 50-70 days to produce enough roses for Valentine’s Day.

Winter’s shorter daylight hours and higher energy costs hamper efforts to grow large rose crops.

Inclement weather often requires extreme measures to ensure that flowers are delivered in time.

To fulfill the tremendous number of orders for Valentine’s Day flowers, florists have to hire additional help, work longer hours and acquire extra delivery vehicles and drivers.

In short, roses in February are every bit as special as you would expect.

Source ~ RoseFarm.Com