History of the Rose

The history of the rose.

Rosa x 'Nearly Wild'
Item # 82724 		Rosa 'Nearly Wild'
Pink Floribunda Rose

each $9.99
3 or more $9.79

Item # 82721 		Rosa 'John Cabot'
Canadian Explorer Series Hybrid Climber

each $9.99
3 or more $9.79
Rosa hugonis ‘Father Hugo’
Item # 82703 		Rosa hugonis
Father Hugo Shrub Rose

each $9.99
3 or more $9.79
  • Topic: Roses
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: rose, history, Other, roses
  • Date: May 2004

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Fossil records date roses back 35 million years. The cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago in China. Today there are over 30,000 varieties. Cleopatra once received her beloved Marc Antony in a room literally knee-deep in rose petals. During the Roman period, roses were used for medicinal purposes, as a source of perfume and the petals were used as confetti at celebrations; and the Roman nobility established large public rose gardens.

During the seventeenth century, roses were in such high demand that royalty considered them as legal tender. It wasn’t until the late eighteenth century that cultivated roses were introduced into Europe, and most modern-day roses can be traced back to this ancestry. These introductions were repeat bloomers, making them unusual and of great interest to hybridizers. Napoleon’s wife, Josephine established an extensive collection of roses in the 1800s.

Roses are divided into two groups, “old roses,” or those cultivated in Europe before 1800; and “modern roses,” which were cultivated in England and France after 1800. Four species of roses are native to the United States.

Probably no flower has more notoriety than the rose. According to one source, there are about 4,000 songs dedicated to the rose and a sampling includes: Red Roses for a Blue Lady, My Wild Irish Rose, Everything’s Comin’ Up Roses, Yellow Rose of Texas, Days of Wine and Roses, I Didn’t Promise You a Rose Garden and When She Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Red, Red Rose.