Everything You Need to Know About Roses

Who knows what Gertrude Stein really meant when she wrote, "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." All we know is that the rose is a symbol of beauty, of peace and of nature's bounty. And we love them whether they're in a lush bouquet, tucked into someone's hair, stamped onto greeting cards or running rampant over a garden trellis.

The History of Roses

Species Roses

Old Garden Roses

• The result of nature's own matchmaking and man's early efforts to cross one rose with another, old garden roses offer a glorious diversity of delicate blooms, colors and fragrance.
  
• The York and Lancaster Rose is a 16th-century rose linked by legend to England's War of the Roses.
  
• In 1800, roses from China arrived and were bred with European roses. From this union came the first true red rose. China tea roses introduced an all-new rose shape.
  
• The famous pioneer rose called 'Harrison's Yellow' is the rose that grows along the old pioneer trails from east to west across America.

Modern Roses

• These are invented or hybridized roses bred by professionals seeking to create brand-new rose varieties. They are a mix of classes including shrubs, miniatures, floribundas, grandifloras and hybrid teas.
  
• The first modern rose was introduced in 1867 and is called 'La France.'
  
• The favorite rose of London before World War I was the Madam Abel Chatenay.
  
• The Peace Rose is a modern rose named to commemorate the end of World War II.