history of rose flowers

History Of Roses

From the earliest times, indeed throughout the history of civilization, people from around the world have held the rose close to their hearts. The earliest known gardening was the planting of roses along the most travelled routes of early nomadic humans. Earliest roses are known to have flourished 35 million-years ago and hips have been found in Europe and petrified rose wreaths have been unearthed from ancient Egyptian tombs.

Roses in Ancient Historic Period

• The Romans outdid the Greeks when Nero, the hedonistic emperor, 1st century AD, dumped tons of rose petals on his dinner guests.
• Cleopatra had her living quarters filled with the petals of roses so that when Marc Antony met her, he would long remember her for such opulence and be reminded of her every time he smelt a rose. Her scheme worked for him. Such is the power of roses.
• Not only in Christian literature, also in ancient Confucian and Buddhist religious documents we find references to the rose.
• The Romans cultivated this great beauty and named it Rosa Gallica. Newly married couples were often crowned with roses.

Roman high society women used petals much like currency believing that they could banish wrinkles if used in poultices. Rose petals were often dropped in wine because it was thought that the essence of rose would stave off drunkenness and victorious armies would return to be showered with rose petals from the civilians that crowded the balconies above the streets.

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Roses in Medieval Period

• The first known paintings of a rose are actually frescoes. The earliest example was discovered in Crete around 1600 B.C.
• 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. Turned into jellies, powders and oils, this rose was believed to cure a multitude of illnesses.

In ancient Mesopotamia, Sargon I, King of the Akkadians (2684-2630 B.C.) brought "vines, figs and rose trees" from a military expedition beyond the River Tigris.

War of Roses

The war started when the nobles of York rose against Henry VI of Lancaster who was a feeble ruler. Edward IV, of York, replaced Henry as king. Later, Henry again became king, but lost his crown once more to Edward after the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. The Yorkists held power until Richard III lost his throne to the Lancastrian Henry Tudor. Henry Tudor married into the House of York. This personal union ended the conflict, and a new famous dynasty, the Tudors, emerged.
The War of the Roses was a civil war in England that lasted from 1455-1487. The House of York adopted a white rose (R. alba), the House of Lancaster decided to take a red rose (R. Gallica). The winner of this war, Tudor Henry VII, merged his Lancastrian rose with the red rose of his York bride and thus created the Tudor Rose, the Rose of England.