Roses evoke feelings of love, passion, romance, friendship, optimism (rose-colored glasses) and prosperity (a bed of roses). Close your eyes and think of roses. What do you sense? A rose garden? A wild bramble of delicate flowers on a country road? A meadow of wild flowers? A bouquet of roses on Valentine’s Day? Do you hear a favorite love song or poem? Smell the scent of rose oil (liquid gold)? Feel the soft, velvety petals?
Roses are one of the world’s most ancient, ubiquitous and beloved flowers. The fragrance emitted from the flower lifts the spirits and is a primary ingredient in most perfumes and personal care products. Roses are used culinarily – most commonly in the form of rose water. And they have been used medicinally for millennia. Many varieties still grow wild while thousands of hybrids have been cultivated. The love of roses has not abated. Competitions for the perfect rose are held. Americans purchase over 1.2 billion cut roses annually and gardeners plant approximately 150 million rose plants worldwide. Explore the divine world of roses with me.
The Elusive Rose
Roses (family Rosaceae, genus Rosa) belong to one of the largest and most complex botanical families on earth. They are an ancient flower; fossil remains from 55 million years ago have been found. They are grown as erect bushes, climbing or trailing shrubs with prickles commonly known as thorns. Genus Rosa includes 150 species with new hybrids continually emerging.
Part of the confusion in understanding and categorizing roses is due to their adaptability. According to Brittanica:
Roses from different regions of the world hybridize readily, giving rise to types that overlap the parental forms, and making it difficult to determine basic species. Fewer than 10 species, mostly native to Asia, were involved in the crossbreeding that ultimately produced today’s many types of garden roses.
Specialists generally categorize roses into three groups: Wild or Species Roses, Old Garden Roses, and Modern Roses.
The Ancient World Fell in Love with Roses
Would Jove appoint some flower to reign, in matchless beauty on the plain, the Rose (mankind will all agree) The Rose the queen of flowers should be.
Sappho (630 – 570 BCE)
Wild roses spread along well-travelled trade routes. Approximately 5,000 years ago, China began cultivating roses. Confucius wrote of growing roses in the Imperial Gardens about 500 B.C. and mentioned that the emperor’s library contained hundreds of books on the subject of roses. Cultivated roses spread westward into the Middle East and Europe.
The ancient civilizations of Persia, Greece, Egypt and Rome literally fell in love with the cultivated rose. The Persian King Nebuchadnezzar is said to have slept on a mattress filled with rose petals. Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra welcomed Marc Antony in a room filled knee deep in rose petals. Ancient Greeks and Romans associated roses with the goddess of love Aphrodite (Greek) and Venus (Roman). According to Greek legend, Aphrodite created the rose from her tears and the blood of her lover Adonis. The rose became the symbol of love and beauty. Roman nobility filled their baths with rose water and feasted while seated on carpets of rose petals. Rose petals were used as confetti at festivals and weddings. Newly married couples wore crowns of roses. Roses were used in cosmetics then as now – for their anti-aging properties and divine fragrance.
Old Garden (Antique) Roses
After the fall of Rome, Europeans continued to tend their roses – both native and cultivated hybrids. Medieval European monasteries and abbeys were centers of healing and contemplation. They grew culinary and medicinal plants, including roses. As Julia Lawless wrote in The Encyclopedia of Essential Oils:
The healing virtues of the rose have been known since antiquity and although roses are rarely used in herbal practice nowadays, up to the Middle Ages they played an essential part in the materia medica, and still fulfil an important role in Eastern medicine. They were used for a wide range of disorders, including digestive and menstrual problems, headaches and nervous tension, liver congestion, poor circulation, fever (plague), eye infections and skin complaints.
The world’s oldest living rose bush dates to the Middle Ages and is thought to be 1000 years old. The Rose of Hildesheim is a Wild Dog Rose and continues to bloom on the wall of the Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany.
Once again, new hybrids were traded to Europe from the Middle East and Asia. According to Wikipedia:
The French Crusader Robert de Brie, who took part in the Siege of Damascus in 1148 at the second crusade, is sometimes credited for bringing the Damask rose from Syria to Europe.
The yellow Persian rose was traded extensively and reached Vienna sometime in the 16th century. From there, it slowly gained popularity across Europe for its color and fragrance.
Antique roses all date to before 1867, the year of the introduction of the first hybrid tea rose. Since roses have been hybridized since ancient times, there are thousands of tough, long-living antique hybrids. Antique roses emit a strong-scented fragrance and bloom once per season. They are hardy and disease resistant. Understandably, Antique Roses are sometimes misidentified as Wild Roses.
Modern Garden Roses
Roses continued to be cultivated and revered in Asia and by 1759 the Chinese Rose (Rose chinensis) was introduced to the west. Guillot, a French rose breeder introduced the first hybrid tea rose, known as La France in 1867. Thus began the era of the Modern Garden Rose. They bloom most of the summer with elegant buds and large blooms. Modern Roses have become so popular that they dominate in most gardens. More than 10,000 hybrid teas had been bred by the late 20th century. They are less hardy than Wild Roses and Old Garden Roses and require more care.
Stop and Smell the Roses
A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.
Chinese Proverb
Roses emit a rich and deep sweet-floral and slightly spicy aroma. The smell of roses can calm your mind and boost your mood. Because of their lovely, deep aroma, roses are used extensively in aromatherapy. The Damascus Rose (Rosa damascene) is the most popular rose for the production of essential oil, fragrances and cosmetics. Aromatherapy is the art and science of utilizing naturally extracted aromatic essences from plants (flowers, herbs, trees) to balance, harmonize and promote the health of body, mind and spirit. Scent molecules in essential oils travel from the olfactory nerves directly to the brain and especially impact the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain. It takes about 5,000 pounds of rose petals to make a pound of rose essential oil. The world leader in growing Damascus Roses and producing the best rose oil is Bulgaria, particularly the Rose Valley.
Common ways to use rose essential oil includes:
- In the bath, use rose water, rose petals or bath salts made with rose essential oil. Rose blends well with many other essential oils.
- Use a room diffuser, or simply simmer plant materials in water on the stove top.
- With a carrier oil (almond, sesame, coconut, jojoba, avocado) in massage oil, lotions, soaps and other beauty and bath products.
Health Benefits of the Rose
According to Bill Laws writing in Fifty Plants That Changed the Course of History:
Then there was the pale pink hedgerow rose (R. canina). Good for treating rabid dog bites, its leaves served as a laxative, it seeds as a diuretic, and its hips were such a rich source of vitamin C, that during World War II British school children were sent out to hunt them out. (They returned with ) an annual harvest of 250 tons [226 tonnes})
The skin is an organ of absorption. Plant medicines are absorbed through the skin in oils, lotions, salves and balms. Rose oil, and rose water are recognized for their benefits to skin including:
- Moisturizing emollient that soothes skin irritations make it a great ingredient in massage oils, face creams, lotions and hair conditioners.
- Harmonizes all skin types and balances the skin’s pH – rosewater and distilled water or witch hazel make a great skin toner or astringent.
- Full of antioxidants that help regenerate skin tissue.
- Full of Vitamins A, C, D and E help minimize wrinkles and aid in collagen production.
- One of the most antiseptic essential oils. The tonic and soothing qualities make it well-suited to mature, dry or sensitive skin.
Rose water combined with witch hazel is soothing and cooling on a hot summer day. Spray rose water on your face to start your day refreshed. Rose oil makes a wonderful base for lotions and soaps. I have made rose oil and rose water, as well as potpourri, bath salts, lotions and soaps. I dry blossoms from my garden roses and infuse them in oil (rose oil) or distilled water (rose water). So can you! I found these easy-to-follow instructions for rose oil and rose water online.
Ayurveda and the Rose
The rose is a medicinal herb according to Ayurveda. They are classified as sweet, bitter, hydrating, oily and cooling. In addition to the uses listed in the previous section, rose water is used in biryani, drinks, teas and desserts while rose petals are sipped in tea. Ingesting roses helps reduce inflammation, balance digestion, reduce stress, support heart health, and nurture skin. Roses are considered rasayana (the path of essence) and aid us on the journey towards a long and healthy life.
Thank you Laura Kraft for the illustration of a rose trellis.
Heidi Lynne' Yoga and Wellness 