The rose, voted year after year as the nation’s favourite flower, is having a very good year.
Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise you that the rose has a very long and colourful history which might explain why most roses have survived our recent funny weather, while other seemingly ‘tough’ plants have conked.
Roses have been symbols of love, beauty, war, and politics. Garden cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago, probably in China, although we could go back further than that.
The rose is, according to fossil evidence, 35 million years old. Rose hips have been found in Europe and petrified rose wreaths have been unearthed from ancient Egyptian tombs.
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.
Things became interesting for rose breeders in the late 18 century when the perpetual flowering trait was introduced into European garden roses through roses brought from China. Chinese roses had smooth leaves, few prickles and flowers with thick petals and little scent. These introductions were repeat bloomers, making them unusual and of great interest to hybridizers.
Today’s gardeners realise that roses offer excellent floral quality, with a huge range in habit and colour, have excellent winter hardiness, and fit into shrub borders and perennial gardens without seeming out of place. Perhaps one day the blue rose will appear - at present it’s a complete fantasy!
To succeed with roses, you need to attend to some basic needs - * is there sufficient sunlight?, *treat pests & diseases immediately when spotted *feed with high potassium fertiliser *do all serious pruning in March.
