Rose Art Industries Business Information, Profile, and History

Related information about Rose

A member of a genus of well-known shrubs or scrambling perennials, nearly all native to the N hemisphere. So-called climbing roses do not climb in a true sense, but grow up through other vegetation or similar supports, and are prevented from slipping back by the tough, often hooked, prickles on the stems. The leaves are pinnate, with three or (usually) more oval, toothed leaflets; they are semi-evergreen, many retaining at least some leaves throughout the winter. The flowers of wild species are 5-petalled, flat or shallowly dish-shaped, white or yellow to red or purple, and often fragrant. Many garden roses have larger flowers with more numerous, less spreading petals, reaching an extreme in the tight, many-petalled blooms of cabbage roses. Cultivated forms also show a greater range of colours than wild plants. The orange, red, or black fruit (hip or hep) consists of a fleshy receptacle expanded to enclose the dry achenes or true fruits within, the whole structure often being crowned with the persistent sepals. The hips are attractive to birds and animals, and are a rich source of vitamin C. The bright red growths resembling balls of thread often found on roses (called robins' pincushions) are galls caused by the gall-wasp Cynips.

Prized for centuries for their beauty and as a source of perfume, roses are probably the world's most widely cultivated ornamental plants, with many wild species being taken directly into gardens or playing an important role in the development of garden forms. They are very hardy, tolerate most growing conditions, and provide a profusion of forms and colours. Exactly when they were first brought into cultivation is uncertain, but they were being grown in China and probably elsewhere c.5000 BC. Several distinct types of rose such as cluster-flowered bush roses (floribundas) have been developed by horticulturists, and there are now over 20 000 named cultivars, with several hundred more produced each year by the flourishing rose-breeding industry. The rose has been extensively used as both a decorative and a heraldic symbol, for example by the Royal Houses of York and Lancaster, and is the national emblem of England. (Genus: Rosa, 250 species. Family: Rosaceae.)

A rose is a flowering shrub of the genus Rosa, and the flower of this shrub. There are more than a hundred species of wild roses, all from the northern hemisphere and mostly from temperate regions. The species form a group of generally thorny shrubs or climbers, and sometimes trailing plants, reaching 2?5 m tall, rarely reaching as high as 20 m by climbing over other plants.

The name originates from Latin rosa, borrowed through Oscan from colonial Greek in southern Italy rhodion (Aeolic wrodion), from Aramaic wurrd?, from Assyrian wurtinnu, from Old Iranian *warda (cf. Avestan warda, Sogdian ward, Parthian w但r).

The leaves of most species are 5?15 cm long, pinnate, with (3?) 5?9 (?13) leaflets and basal stipules; The vast majority of roses are deciduous, but a few (particularly in southeast Asia) are evergreen or nearly so.

The flowers of most species roses have ten parts (five petals and five sepals) with the exception of Rosa sericea which often has only four of each;

The aggregate fruit of the rose is a berry-like structure called a rose hip. Rose species that produce open-faced flowers are attractive to pollinating bees and other insects, thus more apt to produce hips. Each hip comprises an outer fleshy layer, the hypanthium, which contains 5?160 "seeds" (technically dry single-seeded fruits called achenes) embedded in a matrix of fine, but stiff, hairs. Rose hips of some species, especially the Dog Rose (Rosa canina) and Rugosa Rose (Rosa rugosa), are very rich in vitamin C, among the richest sources of any plant. The hips are eaten by fruit-eating birds such as thrushes and waxwings, which then disperse the seeds in their droppings. Some birds, particularly finches, also eat the seeds.

Most roses have thorns or prickles. pimpinellifolia instead have densely packed straight spines, probably an adaptation to reduce browsing by animals, but also possibly an adaptation to trap wind-blown sand and so reduce erosion and protect their roots (both of these two species grow naturally on coastal sand dunes). The most serious is rose rust (Phragmidium mucronatum), a species of rust fungus, which can defoliate the plant. More common, though less debilitating, are rose black spot, caused by the fungus Diplocarpon rosae, which makes circular black spots on the leaves in summer, and powdery mildew, caused by Sphaerotheca pannosa. Roses are also used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species;

Cultivation

Roses are one of the most popular garden shrubs and are also among the most common flowers sold by florists.

Many thousands of rose hybrids and cultivars have been bred and selected for garden use, mostly double-flowered with many or all of the stamens mutated into additional petals. As long ago as 1840 a collection numbering over one thousand different cultivars, varieties and species was possible when a rosarium was planted by Loddiges nursery for Abney Park Cemetery, an early Victorian garden cemetery and arboretum in England.

Roses thrive in temperate climates, though certain species and cultivars can flourish in sub-tropical and even tropical climates, especially when grafted onto appropriate root-stock. These are some of the oldest garden roses, probably brought to Great Britain by the Romans. Examples: 'Semi-plena', 'White Rose of York'.

• Gallica - The Gallica roses have been developed from R. gallica versicolor).
  
• Damask - Robert de Brie is given credit for bringing them from Persia to Europe sometime between 1254 and 1276. Examples: 'Ispahan', 'Madame Hardy'.
  
• Centifolia (or Provence) - These roses, raised in the seventeenth century in the Netherlands, are named for their "one hundred" petals. Examples: 'Centifolia', 'Paul Ricault'.
  
• Moss - Closely related to the centifolias, these have a mossy excrescence on the stems and sepals. and 'Parks' Yellow Tea Scented China', 1824) were brought to Europe in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which brought about the creation of the repeat flowering old garden roses and later the modern garden roses. Examples: 'Old Blush China', 'Mutabilis'.
  
• Portland - These are named after the Duchess of Portland who received (from Italy in 1800) a rose then known as R. Introduced in France in 1823. The roses have significant value and interest for those growing roses in tropical and semi-tropical regions, since they are highly resistant to both nematode damage and the fungal diseases that plague rose culture in hot, humid areas, and capable of blooming in hot and humid weather. The ancient Greeks and Romans identified the rose with their goddesses of love (Aphrodite and Venus). The phrase sub rosa, or "under the rose", means to keep a secret?derived from this ancient Roman practice.
  
  Early Christians identified the five petals of the rose with the five wounds of Christ. Roses also later came to be associated with the Virgin Mary.
  
  Rose culture came into its own in Europe in the 1800's with the introduction of perpetual blooming roses from China.

Culture

Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. The rose was sacred to a number of goddesses (including Isis and Aphrodite), and is often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary. Roses are so important that the word means pink or red in a variety of languages (such as Romance languages, Greek, and Polish).

The rose is the national flower of England and the United States, as well as being the symbol of England Rugby, and of the Rugby Football Union. It is also the provincial flower of Yorkshire and Lancashire in England (the white rose and red rose respectively) and of Alberta (the wild rose), and the state flower of four US states: Iowa and North Dakota (R. Portland, Oregon counts "City of Roses" among its nicknames, and holds an annual Rose Festival.

Roses are ocassionally the basis of design for rose windows, such windows comprising five or ten segments (the five petals and five sepals of a rose) or multiples thereof; however most Gothic rose windows are much more elaborate and were probably based originally on the wheel and other symbolism.

A red rose (often held in a hand) is also a symbol of socialism or social democracy; it is also used as a symbol by the British and Irish Labour Parties, as well as by the French, Spanish (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch (Partij van de Arbeid) and European socialist parties. This originates from the red rose used as a badge by the marchers in the May 1968 street protests in Paris.

Victorian symbolism

According to the Victorian "Language of flowers", different coloured roses each have their own symbolic meaning:

• Red: love
  
• Pink: grace, lesser feelings of love
  
• Dark Pink: gratitude
  
• Light Pink: admiration, sympathy
  
• White: innocence, purity, secrecy, friendship, reverence and humility.
  

  The rose came to symbolize the Republic of Georgia's non-violent bid for freedom during its Rose Revolution.
  

  The symbol of a rose can also refer to the red rose of Lancaster, and the white rose of York, from the Wars of the Roses period.
  

  Mythology and superstition

  
  
  • In some pagan mythologies, no undead or ghostly creatures (particularly vampires) may cross the path of a wild rose. It was thought that to place a wild rose on a coffin of a recently deceased person would prevent them from rising again.
    
  • Since the earliest times, the rose has been an emblem of silence:
    
    • In Greek Mythology, Eros presents a rose to the god of silence.
      
    • In a Celtic folk legend, a wandering, screaming spirit was silenced by presenting the spirit with a wild rose every new moon.
      
  • Roses were used in very early times as a very potent ingredient in love philters.
    
  • According to Indian mythology, one of the wives of Vishnu was found inside a rose.
    
  • In Rome it was often customary to bless roses on "Rose Sunday".
    
  • Amongst Muslims, it is still believed that the first rose was created from a tear of the prophet Mohammed, and it is further believed that on a certain day in the year the rose has a heart of gold.
    
  • In Scotland, if a white rose bloomed in autumn it was a token of an early marriage.
    
  • The red rose, it is believed by many religions, cannot grow over a grave.
    
  • Rose leaves thrown into a burning flame are said to give good luck.
    
  • If a young girl had more than one lover, it is believed in one mythology, she should take rose leaves and write the names of her lovers upon them before casting them into the wind. The last leaf to reach the ground would bear the name of the lover whom she should marry.
    
  • It is believed that if a rose bush were pruned on St. John's Eve, it would be guaranteed to bloom in the autumn.
    

  In art

  Roses are often portrayed by artists. The French artist Pierre-Joseph Redout辿 produced some of the most detailed paintings of roses. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet act II, sc. Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose
  
• Hearts starve as well as bodies; James Oppenheim, "Bread and Roses"
  
• Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose ? (more commonly referred to as the 'Nowhere Man'), Yellow Submarine (film)
  

Perfume

Rose perfumes are made from attar of roses or rose oil, which is a mixture of volatile essential oils obtained by steam-distilling the crushed petals of roses. The technique originated in Persia (the word Rose itself is from Persian) then spread through Arabia and India, but nowadays about 70% to 80% of production is in the Rose Valley near Kazanluk in Bulgaria, with some production in Qamsar in Iran and Germany. The Kaaba in Mecca is annually washed by the Iranian rose water from Qamsar. for example, about 2,000 flowers are required to produce one gramme of oil.

The main constituents of attar of roses are the fragrant alcohols geraniol, which has the empirical formula C₁₀H₁₈O and the structural formula CH₃.CCH₃:CH.CH₂.CH₂.CCH₃:CH.CH₂OH and l-citronellol; They can also be used to make herbal tea, jam, jelly and marmalade.

Notable rose growers

Notable rose growers include:

• David Austin ("English" roses)
  
• Peter Beales
  
• Paul Chessum
  
• Jos辿phine de Beauharnais
  
• Griffith Buck, professor of horticulture at Iowa State University from 1948 to 1985, hybridized nearly 90 rose varieties. class=ilnk>Conard-Pyle Co. (Star Roses)
  
• Jules Gravereaux
  
• Jean-Baptiste Guillot
  
• Meilland family
  
• Jean Pernet, p竪re
  
• Joseph Pernet-Ducher
  

In the UK, different parts of the National Collection of Roses are maintained by David Austin, Peter Beales, and the Royal National Rose Society, with Mottisfont Abbey maintaining a collection of pre-1900 shrub roses and the University of Birmingham Botanic Garden maintaining a collection entitled 'The History of the European Rose'.

References

• Easy and Elegant Rose Design, E.