It probably originated in the Caucasus and traveled west by way of Greece and Rome. Made famous as the emblem of the House of York during the fifteenth-century Wars of the Roses, this five-petaled rose is actually far older, dating to before the second century A.D.
Until European merchants discovered the tea and China roses in the Orient many centuries later, this rose would be the only repeat bloomer known to the Western world.Īnother important early rose was rosa alba, the 'White Rose of York'. a North African variant called Rosa damascena semperflorens, the 'Autumn Damask', thrilled the Romans because it bloomed twice a year - a trait previously unknown to them The 'Autumn Damask', which has been traced back to at least the fifth century B.C., is believed to be a cross between Rosa gallica and Rosa moschata, the musk rose. Although the exact origin of Rosa gallica is unknown, traces of it appear as early as the twelfth century B.C., when the Persians considered it a symbol of love.ĭescending from Rosa gallica is Rosa damascena, the damask rose, whose well-known fragrance has been part of rose history since the rose first appeared in about 900 B.C. The oldest rose identified today is Rosa gallica, also known as the French rose, which once bloomed wild throughout central and southern Europe and western Asia, and still survives there. 220) were so obsessed with these flowers that their parks threatened to engulf land needed for producing food, and that the emperor ordered some rose gardens plowed under. It is said that the rose gardeners of the Han dynasty (207 B.C.-A.D. Confucius wrote of roses growing in the Imperial Gardens and noted that the library of the Chinese emperor contained hundreds of books about roses.
Early civilizations, including the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Romans, appreciated roses and grew them widely as long as five thousand years ago.Ībout 500 B.C. The rose apparently originated in Central Asia about 60 to 70 million years ago, during the Eocene epoch, and spread over the entire Northern Hemisphere. Roses grow wild as far north as Norway and Alaska and as far south as Mexico and North Africa, but no wild roses have ever been found to grow below the equator. Fossils have also been found in Germany and in Yugoslavia. Forty million years ago, a rose left its imprint on a slate deposit at the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado, and fossils of roses from Oregon and Montana date back 35 million years, long before humans existed. Rose is older than the human hands that first cared for it, drew pictures of it, and celebrated rose in music and lore. Throughout history no flower has been so loved, or renowned as the rose.
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