Rose History

THE ROSE TIME LINE, ONE OF FANTASY MYTH AND SYMBOLISM

by Amanda Beales.

 The oldest ever painted roses were discovered on a Fresco in 1900, at the palace of King Minos in the north of Crete. We can be fairly sure both from deduction and examples such as these that roses played a key part, even then, in every day life. Those in the fresco are five petalled blooms most likely to have been Rosa gallica but also possibly Rosa canina (the dog rose we know so well in our hedgerows) or even Rosa sancta also known as The Holy Rose, all of them quite beautiful in their simplicity.

We know that the Romans and indeed the early Greeks worshipped the flowers, using them as they did to carpet the floor on the occasions of great banquets. They believed them to be aphrodisiac, floating petals in their wine and beer, a very special flower indeed to them. It was the Roman’s who invented the earliest form of greenhouse heating, channelling canals of warm water below the ground so that the temperature within would be increased and the flowering season extended.

From the Roman era the story continues. The Crusaders are known to have brought back many species to Europe from the East and this form of acquirement has been a consistent part of history. For example it is believed that the early Tea roses arrived here, transported by the tea clippers from India, from which they took their name, although some believe that the name describes their scent. They do undoubtedly originate from that area of the world and are often less than hardy in our British climate.

Napoleon’s wife Josephine had her husband’s troops collect roses from every destination, delivering them to her at Malmaison in Paris where she built up one of the most impressive collections of roses especially of Gallicas and Bourbons. Whilst at the same time she amassed a beautiful assembly of wonderful paintings and jewellery. Josephine’s collections have stood us in good stead for not only did she amass some wonderful varieties, many still available this present day, she employed the talents of one Pierre Joseph Redouté to record them for posterity in his accurate and most beautiful paintings. These paintings, many of which are held at the John Innes Centre in my local city of Norwich not only give us an exact recording of as many of her roses as he could in time depict in paint but have gone on to embellish china-ware, and the smallest of rooms in the form of framed prints ever since.

From fossilised evidence we can be certain that roses existed in pre-historic times and petrified rose wreaths have been found in the tombs of the ancient Egyptians but the earliest documented evidence is found in Book 23 of Homer’s epic "The Iliad", which was composed sometime in the 9^th century BC. Here we find the story of the downfall of the city of Troy. It tells that Achilles, who killed Hector, son of the King carried a shield decorated with roses and it also tells us that Hector’s body was anointed in rose oil before being embalmed by the Goddess Aphrodite, to whom the rose is dedicated. According to mythology it was Aphrodite that caused roses to be red. Upon seeing her true love Adonis mortally wounded she ran to him and in her haste scratched herself on the thorns of some roses, as her blood fell on the mythical white blooms they became stained, ever more to remain red. Red roses today remain a lover’s token.

Roses have symbolically marked many periods in history, especially in this country, after all it is our national emblem. Even if not in fact they are quoted often. The famous nursery rhyme ‘A ring a ring of roses’ is actually reference to the great plague of London in the sixteen hundreds, the ‘black death’. The roses actually describe the red blotches that were a symptom of the disease. A ‘pocket full of posies’ refers to the bunches of herbs and flowers, possibly containing roses, that were carried to ward off the disease. Indeed the Apothecaries of the time used roses a great deal. ‘ The Red Rose of Lancaster’, Rosa gallica Officinallis is also well known as ‘ The Apothecaries Rose’, It and other roses of that time were used in a great many remedies for ailments so diverse as gout and stomach upsets. It is a fact that the rose hip is packed with vitamin c and, as my father would testify the young shoots of the species roses are not only edible but enjoyable and probably contain their own element of nutrition.

There are other heraldic roses and the plant has indeed made it’s way through religious history also. Most religions believe in rose symbolism in some form or other, in Christianity the rose is associated with Mary. White roses are attributed to the Virgin martyrs and to the Virgin Mary herself and red roses represent the blood of Christ spilt on the cross and his love for mankind.

The single five petalled rose was the inspiration behind the symbol of the medieval Hermetics and was also considered to be the five wounds of Christ and his crown of thorns made from the wild briar. The ancient organisation the Rosicrucians used roses symbolically also as did other orders of Knights and sects. Rose windows can be found in churches and other religious windows the world over and the Rosary was originally a string of 150 dried roses.

Therefore it is obvious that the roots of the rose run very deep, so deep in fact that the rose time line is steeped in mystery and myth. I am quite sure that’s it’s future will be just as fascinating.

 

 

Roses were not used just to treat the ill but were (and still are) used in the making of perfume. The attar of the rose has been extracted for this purpose it would seem today, almost forever. The Romans and ancient Greeks would use petals to fragrance both themselves and their houses. Later the Persians found a way of extracting the pure rose oil from varieties of the Damasks and a few others and even today there are distilleries devoted to obtaining it. It is indeed possible that Rosa gallica and Rosa gallica officinalis fell prey to the perfumer’s hands but ‘The Red Rose of Lancaster had more movement in the time line that is history to this day, with more still to come. This rose a sport developed, a mutation. The flowers of the same build but striped in carmine and white. This rose became known as Rosa Mundi and is reputedly named after the mistress to Henry II, Fair Rosamund. It is curious that the petals should have become streaked with white for later the Red Rose of Lancaster was to combine with the White Rose of York, Rosa alba, to make up the Tudor Rose, the emblem of Henry VII. At the culmination of the 100 year war, later to be known as the Battle of the Roses, Henry, of Lancastrian descent, defeated Richard the III at the Battle of Bosworth field in 1485 and thus gained the throne. Soon after the families reunited when Henry married Elizabeth of York and in respect of this Henry symbolically pasted together the red and white rose, the heraldic emblem we now recognise as the Tudor Rose.

  

Roses are among the most ancient of plants and their story from the earliest of origins to the present day is fascinating. I only wish I had the pages to tell you all of it but I haven’t and even if I had this document would be incomplete for I am sure there is yet more to be learned and understood!