Everything's coming up Roses for me and for you........

    These beautiful flowers are one of my favorite...I work so close to the rose garden at the Empress Hotel, I can't help but go out there to take as many photos as I can.  I walk through there every day, sit on my favorite bench and inhale the sweet scent....I just sit there and watch the people go by, they all go smell the roses, kids pick them, everyone stops to take a photo.  They provide hours of entertainment, most with thorns and the odd one that does not.

My favorite roses are the old fashioned ones that have such great scent...they look wild almost, old shrubs...but they smell divine.  I go and pick them and make perfume from them from time to time...or just throw them in the bath with some whole milk (yes whole milk), and soak...the milk holds in the moisture and the roses. ..well what can I say. The names of some of these grand flowers are Amelia, La Noblesse (which is a cabbage rose), and Gloire De Guilan (which is a damask rose grown in Persia for Attar of Roses)....the list is so long that I could be here all day listing them (grin).

BRIEF HISTORY

The rose is one of the oldest flowers know to man, and is still one of the most popular.  Nebuchadnezzar used them to adorn his palace.  In Persia they were grown for their perfume oil.
It is said that Cleopatra (69-30BC) was so enamored of them that on special occassions the floor of her palace was carpeted with rose petals.
During the Roman period, roses were grown extensively in the middle east.  They were used as confetti at celebrations, also for medicinal purposes (I like rose jelly), and as a source of perfume. (really).
During the 15 Century, the rose was used as a symbol for the factions fighting to control England.  The white rose symbolized York, and the red Lancaster, as a result......the conflict became known as the "War of the Roses." (Not the DVD).

Roses were in such high demand during the 17th century that royalty considered rose or rose water as legal tender, and they were often used as barter and for payments.
Napoleon's wife Josephine established an extensive collection of roses at chateau de Malmasion.
This garden became the setting for Pierre Joseph Redoute's work as a botanical illustrator.

According to Greek mythology, the rose is the flower of love.
Endowed with beauty, charm, joy and sweet scent, it was created by the Greek goddess of flowers out of a lifeless body of a nymph.
The goddess name was Chloris.  Upon finding this nymph, she also enlisted the help of Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, who gave her beauty; Dionysus, the god of wine, added nectar to give her a sweet scent, and the three Graces gave her charm, brightness and joy.  Then Zephyr, the west wind, blew away the clouds so that Apollo, the sun god, could shine and make the flower bloom...and so the rose was born....

Roman Legend...tells of a maiden so beautiful that she was pursued by many suitors.  she took refuge in the temple of the goddess Diana who became jealous.  When the suitors broke down her temple gates to get near their beloved maiden, she turned the maiden into a rose and her suitors into thorns.....(wow)....never make her mad:)

The oldest garden rose is called the apothecary rose, Rosa Gallica Officibalis, and it was believed to cure a multitude of illnesses.

My favorite saying is:
A single rose can be my garden, and a single friend my world.......

So take a walk with me through many rose gardens....as I go along the path...enjoy!!!

I will add as I go along...I can smell them now.......