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There's something magical and intrinsically lovely about roses. It could be from their silky smooth petals accompanied by their thick and sharp thorns. Maybe it's from the movie Beauty and the Beast, seeing the rich royal red intensified by the heartfelt love story?
We will break it all down when we go through the rose's etymology, symbolism, and uses!
Let's take a step back and see where the name comes from.
The name Rose (also its genus) comes from a linage of borrowed names, which may have trailed back to the Parthian word wâr. Very far off from Rose but history is still history. Nevertheless, the most know is from the Latin word Rosa. It's a name favoured by Spain, Italy, and the upper-class. It's a classic name with vintage beauty.
Among a few notable namesakes like Rosa Parks (Civil rights icon) and Rosa Bonheur (French realist style artist 1822-1899), we also have awesome show characters like Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn-nine-nine) or Rosa the Pokemon Trainer.
Why do people associate roses with love?
What's impressive is that we're ingrained with the doctrine that roses mean love- especially red roses. It's seen as our expression to love, fascination, and attraction- there's no other obvious way to display our true feelings. Once the recipient is mesmerized by the alignment of petals and colour, all of your emotions and passion are revealed.
If we look into ancient Greek mythology, their goddess Aphrodite was intimately associated with the rose. Her love, care, and healing with roses were written in many poems, adapted by many other poets and writers.
Within early Christianity, it was believed that the rose was identified with the Virgin Mary. Soon after her apparition, the rose led to the creation of the rosary, which is a beaded necklace where each bead is used to count the component prayers. The Virgin Mary also led to the symbolization of colours and the numerical value of each rose.
I've listed the colours and numbers with their affirmations (along with a few cool facts outside of feelings).
Red roses symbolize true love, romance, and sacrifice.
This is the perfect Valentine’s Day rose.
Since 1880's politics, the red rose symbolizes socialism because of its colour.
Pink roses symbolize gratitude, grace, admiration, and joy.
Light pink: Gentleness and sympathy.
Darker pinks: Appreciation and recognition.
Purple roses symbolize royalty, change, and wonder.
lavender: enchantment, adoration, love-at-first-sight
Orange roses symbolize enthusiasm and intense passion.
it was seen as a cross-over from red and yellow
Yellow roses symbolize friendship, wisdom, and joy.
White roses symbolize innocence, holiness, and purity.
There's a non-violent resistance group during WWII called die Weiße Rose (White Rose) that advocated against the Nazi party regime.
This name was dedicated to embodying innocence and purity in the face of evil.
The number of roses can manifest your love as well.
1 rose: Love at first sight
2 roses: Shared and deep love
3 roses: “I love you”
6 roses: “I want to be yours”.
7 roses: Infatuation
9 roses: Eternal love
10 roses: “You’re perfect”
Facts on Roses, types and variations
Farmer's breeding process gives us desirable rose characteristics. Through genetically modifying and cultivation, roses now have over 300 species with thousands and thousands of distinctive phenotypes. There are so many variations in size, height, shape, colour, and smell. Not only that, you can customize your roses too! Just let the stem sit in food colouring for a few hours and the colour will be bright and vivid.
The Tallest Rose: Cécile Brunner' Rose (August 1, 2004)
Anne and Charles Grant, L.A, grew the tallest rose
Measured at 91ft tall (27.7m or 8 stories high) according to the Guinness World Record.
The Largest Rose Flower
Nikita K. Rulhoksoffski, a California-based rose grower and hybridizer
Pink rose measured 84 cm (33 in) in diameter
It had to be placed on the floor as it was too large for the display table.
The Smallest Rose: ‘Diamond Rose’
Sudhir Khetawat of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
Its flowers are only 1 cm (less than 1/3 inches) in diameter. Its buds are the size of a grain of rice.
Priciest Cultivation: Juliet Rose
Bred by English hybridizer David Austin
It took 15 years and £12 million ($15.8 million US) to develop
Now we can purchase/grow this type of rose for a much lower cost making it an ideal wedding rose!
What to expect when you're eating a rose
Roses offer a wide range of symbolism from their history, quantity, and colours.
Let's dive into rose floriphagia.
Since there are many types of roses, their flavours run in many directions as well, ranging from flavourless, sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, herbal, and minty. You may even experience a metallic after-taste with some hybrid roses, that's why people recommend consuming old roses like:
White beach rose (Rosa rugosa alba)
Rosa rugosa
Damask roses (Rosa damascena)
Apothecary rose (Rosa gallica)
You can eat almost every part of the rose using its parts in making or enhancing a dish. We've heard of rose water, rose hips, rose buds but have you heard about rose leaves? Let's run down each part that's edible.
Leaves: they taste best when they're young.
It's best consumed as a tea rather than a salad.
Rose leaves can be raw or dried when you're making your tea.
Petals: When preparing the rose, usually tear off the white bits of the rose petals as those are generally bitter.
eat them as a salad or use them as a garnish
a honey spread (chopped up rose petals and honey)
candied
Rosebuds: these are loaded with flavour, just pick off the entire bud before opening
you can lay them out to dry for teas
you can also use this as a flavouring for your dishes
Rose Hips: You can eat them raw or make jam or sauces.
Tangy apricot flavour, packed full of vitamin C (more than an orange too!)
The best time to eat your rose hips is when they're bright orange or red with no green pigmentation.
You can scrape out the seeds by cutting the rosehip in half.
Nutritionally, roses contain Vitamin A, C and E, riboflavin, niacin, calcium, phosphorous, iron, and potassium. Rose hips contain more vitamin C than oranges. As long as you are certain the roses are organically grown, with no pesticides, it's pretty much safe to eat. Just slowly get accustomed to eating roses to prevent an allergy to develop.
Down below are just a few nutritional benefits when you eat roses.
It's excellent for colds because it's beneficial to the immune system.
It helps prevent cardiovascular and eye disease, as well as prenatal health problems.
It's great for wrinkles.
It helps decrease anxiety and promotes relaxation.
I really hope you all enjoyed this read, I'll try to blog more on other flowers in the same manner. Hopefully, more than can be eaten so I can write recipes along with it. Take a look at Cooking with Fleurcor for more recipes. We have lots of flower recipes ranging from gourmet to drinks!
If you like what I post
I host many seasonal giveaways for my Artificial Flower Pots
I also manage a flower wall rental service and make really beautiful bouquets in the GTA