Valentine’s Day is almost here and with it comes a whopping 196 million long stem red roses. In honor of all those flowers, we thought you might enjoy learning these ten fun rose facts.
Ten Fun Rose Facts
Many people have been passionate about roses, but none more so than Cleopatra. It is said that the floors of her palace were carpeted with rose petals.
1,000 years old, that’s the age of the world’s oldest living rose. Today, it flourishes on the wall of the Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany.
The largest rose bush resides in Tombstone, Arizona. It measures nearly 6 feet in diameter and forms a canopy large enough to shelter a crowd of 150 people. In full bloom this rose is adorned with more than 200,000 white blooms.
Throughout history, roses were thought to have mysterious powers. Napoleon gave them to his officers to cure lead poisoning caused by bullet wounds.
Roses have been out of this world. In 2002 a miniature rose, ‘Overnight Scentsation,’ journeyed into space to test the effects of low gravity on the sense of smell.
While standing in the famous White House Rose Garden, President Reagan officially made the rose the national flower emblem of the United States.
The red rose has been a token of love and passion for thousands of years. In Greek and Roman mythology, the red rose is linked to and loved by both Aphrodite and Venus, the Goddesses of Love. Affluent Roman women even used rose petals like currency.
Botanically speaking, roses don’t really have thorns; they have prickles. Thorns have deep roots in a plant’s stem, but prickles attach at the surface and are more easily removed.
According to Victorian flower dictionaries, a rose’s color determines its meaning. Red signifies “love,” pink means “grace,” peach signals “modesty,” white denotes “purity” and orange implies “fascination.”
And last but not least, in case you are the fortunate recipient of roses this Valentine’s Day, here is a recipe to prolong their beauty. Sugar-Clorox Mix Prepare a Sugar-Clorox Mix by putting one-half cup granulated sugar and two teaspoons of Clorox in a two-gallon pail of warm (not hot) water. Add this to your vase and enjoy.
Happy Valentines from the Floral Design Committee!