THE FOLKLORE OF PLANTS: Rose

Lisa Karen Miller

          A holy maiden of Bethlehem, “blamed with wrong and slandered” was doomed to die by fire.  She asked the Lord to help her; immediately the fire was quenched, the burning brands became red roses, and the unlit brands white roses.  Thus the rose became the flower of martyrs.

          In the language of flowers, it says “Love,” “Charm,” and “Grace.” It has been inextricably linked with both religious imagery and romantic love. The Virgin Mary’s rose is white, representing her purity.  Those associated with love goddesses and courtesans are red, representing quite something else.

          Geoffrey Chaucer sets his poem “Parliament of Fowls,” on St. Valentine’s Day.  In it, February 14^th is the day the birds seek their mates. This morphed into our present observance of it as the day when love is celebrated.

          Dioscorides, in his great De Materia Medica of the first century, offers the rose as a remedy for everything from sore eyes to spitting blood.  He included recipes for rose oil, rose wine, and even a deodorant pomander which women wore as a necklace.

          Nicholas Culpeper, that proponent of astrological gardening, prescribed rose compounds for any number of ailments.  He also alleged that each was ruled by a different entity: Red by Jupiter; Damask by Venus; White by the moon; and Centifolia by the King of France.

          Roses have a long association with those in power.

          Of course we’re well acquainted with the Wars of the Roses: Lancastrians bore the red rose, Yorkists the white. I’m afraid that was all written years after the wars by revisionist spin doctors.  Henry Tudor’s emblem was in fact a red dragon, Richard III’s a white boar. 

          Not only the British have politicized the rose.  When Jennifer Potter, author of The Rose, visited the White House Rose Garden during the younger Bush’s administration, five of the ten rose varieties had Republican namesakes: “Pat Nixon,” “Barbara Bush,” “Laura Bush,”  “Ronald Reagan,” and “Nancy Reagan.”

          Those honoring Democrats, “Lady Bird Johnson,” “John F. Kennedy,” and “Rosalyn Carter” among them, had been uprooted. 

          Hmm.

          In the 1880’s, the Vanderbilts invited guests to a lavish party, delighting them with 50,000 cut roses, some of which cost $1 per stem.

          These ancient beauties are not only for the rich, however.  The first president of Britian’s National Rose Society asserted that the best blooms are grown by working men and women.

          King, slandered maiden, love goddess, president, or peasant: makes no difference.  Roses are for all of us.

© Copyright 2023 Lisa Karen Miller