The World of Roses

Roses are red and with different hues,

Bloom in splendor and all the dews!

 

Roses are one of the most popular flowers around the world, often seen bloom in various parts of the world. The Loire climate in France is particularly well adapted to roses, and you will often see them in gardens in Touraine. The colour of roses can be combined to form an attractive picture with subtle fragrances as well. The queen of flowers has been grown in China and Persia for over 5000 years. Roses have a powerful symbolism that has developed over time.

Several legends are linked to roses. In Greek mythology, the rose was a nymph brought back to life by Chloris (the goddess of flowers), embellished by Aphrodite, perfumed by Dionysus, and given all its charm by the Three Graces.

As for the rose’s thorns, Roman mythology saw them as Cupid’s arrows. In the language of flowers, in the garden and at the florist’s, rose colors convey a very precise meaning.

··    Red roses: the color of passion and love. A variety: Souvenir de Claudius Denoyel.

·       Pink roses: the perfect symbol of romanticism and beauty. A variety: the “Quatre Saisons de Damas”.

·       Orange roses: hidden love. A variety: Orange Supreme.

·       Yellow roses: friendship and goodwill; perfect as a gift for someone recovering from illness! A variety: Maigold.

·       White roses: pure, immaculate love, embodied, for example, by the Annapurna rose.

·       Purple roses: a color symbolizing deep tenderness. A variety: “Charles de Gaulle”

In the early 19th century, there were only a few dozen varieties of roses in France. But Napoleon’s wife, the empress Josephine, fell in love with the flower. Between 1804 and 1814, she planted almost 250 varieties of roses in the park at Malmaison. Most of what was the first big French collection of roses were Rosa gallica or French roses.

‘La France’ is reported to be the legendary first Hybrid Tea Rose, introduced by Guillot & fils in 1867: the lovely, classic hybrid tea is world famous to rose historians. Its introduction is commonly considered to be the birth of the modern rose.

It has been determined by history that the rose itself is a man-made phenomenon. What we call “roses” are actually man-made cultivars of representatives of the biological genus Briar or Wild rose (Rosa), a plant of the Rosaceae family. Most varieties of roses are obtained through breeding: by crossing and selection.

There is a theory that says that roses were grown in the countries of the Middle East more than 5000 years ago. Even before the Common Era, roses were cultivated in India and China. Roses are depicted on the walls of the palaces in Crete (2000 years BC) and on the tombs of the pharaohs in Egypt (about 1000 years BC). Clay tablets found in the palace of Nestor in Crete tell us about the fragrant rose oil; Confucius wrote about the cultivation of roses in China; and dozens of varieties of roses are mentioned in the works of Roman writers.

The Damascus Rose has been known in the Middle East for ages. In the 7th century, the Arabs knew the principle of distillation and were able to get from flowers both rose oil and rose water. In the 19th century, this species of rose came from Syria to Europe.

At the moment, it is the most important type of roses for perfumery, and it is grown in the Bulgarian Kazanlak (about 70%). Damascus Rose is also grown in Syria, Turkey, Iran, India, China, and Saudi Arabia.

Rose de Mai is grown in France, Egypt, Tunisia and other countries of North Africa, Eastern Europe, Italy and China, but most actively it is cultivated in Morocco: every year more than 2000 kilograms of the Rose de Mai concrete are produced there by extraction with petroleum ether.

The rose theme has recently become more popular among men's fragrances: L'Artisan Parfumeur's Voleur de Roses and Amouage's Lyric Man are examples of fragrances with a solo rose, performed in the classical male context, most often in combination with patchouli or an oud accord.

Rose is a universal ingredient, it can take the lead role, form flower bouquets or work in the background; thanks to the complexity of its olfactory profile, it can be combined with almost any other perfumery material: citrus, fruit, wood, aldehyde, aquatic, green, leather, sweet, spicy, or balsamic.