Rose (flower)

“ THE LOVELIEST ROSE IN THE WORLD
There lived once a great queen, in whose garden were found at all seasons the most splendid flowers, and from every land in the world. She specially loved roses, and therefore she possessed the most beautiful varieties of this flower, from the wild hedge-rose, with its apple-scented leaves, to the splendid Provence rose. They grew near the shelter of the walls, wound themselves round columns and window-frames, crept along passages and over the ceilings of the halls. They were of every fragrance and color. ”

“ Pick up yon rose—the one bud that has strayed—
Cast down the lid. Our last tribute is paid
To the infant, the child, the girl, and the maid,
Wife and mother.
Let her sleep in the bloom
Of the roses' perfume,
One flower with another.
All white, white, white,
Let them sleep through the night,
To the light.
From the earth was their birth;
On the earth grew they in beauty, burning
With whitest, purest flames,
To earth returning. ”

“ Song of the Colours: by Taj Mahomed Rose-colour Rose Pink am I, the colour gleams and glows In many a flower; her lips, those tender doors By which, in time of love, love's essence flows From him to her, are dyed in delicate Rose. Mine is the earliest Ruby light that pours Out of the East, when day's white gates unclose. On downy peach, and maiden's downier cheek I, in a flush of radiant bloom, alight, Clinging, at sunset, to the shimmering peak I veil its snow in floods of Roseate light. ”

“ Later in the season, we become critical—we reject the full-blown flower for the half-open bud, but just now we are eager to feast our eyes upon a rose—a true, perfect rose—with all her beauties opening to the light, all her silken petals unfolding in rich profusion about her fragrant heart. ”

“ SELECT one rose from the many you have gathered and hold the blossom tenderly while you look down into its heart and breathe in its beauty and fragrance; then gently turn the rose over and find how wonderfully all the petals fit in and are held together in their pretty green cup with its long green streamers, which we call the calyx. Is there any flower more beautiful? ”

“ The Rose is preëminently the Queen of Flowers. It has no rival in the floral kingdom, and will always stand at the head in the catalogue of Flora's choicest gems. To it alone belongs that subtle perfume that captivates the sense of smell, and that beauty of form and color so pleasing to the eye. Add to all this, it is one of the easiest plants to cultivate, as it will grow and flower in almost any soil or climate, requiring but little care and attention as compared with many other favorites of the garden. ”

“ To most men a rose is only a flower, but to the exceptional man it is a miracle, for as he gazes at the glorious bloom with its many-tinted petals he visualizes the tiny single rose—the common dog-rose—from which all roses in their wondrous diversity of colour and shape and size and perfume have sprung. ”

“ Long she lay watching the bright shadows, and listening to the song of the rose, while through the long night dreams of lovely things floated like bright clouds through her mind; while the rose bent lovingly above her, and sang in the clear moonlight. ”

“ Pluck your rose and bring it indoors, and place it side by side with other blossoms—yellow flag and blue periwinkle, and shining yellow marsh-marigold, and poppy and cornflower—and it has no lustre, and is no more to the soul than a flower made out of wax or paper. ”

“ General Jacqueminot.—A strong grower, and when in bud, one of the most beautiful of roses. Its open flower, not being perfectly double, is surpassed by others. Its color is a scarlet crimson, with a soft velvety sheen, and a few thousand of them in full bloom is a sight to be remembered. ”

“ Gather therefore the rose whilest yet is prime,
For soone comes age, that will her pride deflowre:
Gather the rose of love whilest yet is time,
Whilest loving thou mayst loved be with equal crime."
Well does the excelling beauty and exquisite perfume of this praised flower merit our admiration. We may say with the Poets, Beaumont and Fletcher—
Nature picked several flowers from her choice banks,
And bound them up in thee—sending thee forth
A posy for the bosom of a queen. ”

“ I shall close the poetical quotations on the Rose with one of Shakespeare's sonnets.
O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, By that sweet ornament which truth doth give. The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem For that sweet odour which doth in it live. The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye As the perfumed tincture of the roses, Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly, When summer's breath their masked buds discloses; But for their virtue only is their show, They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade; Die to themselves. ”

“ The Rose is the flower of romance and sentiment throughout the lands in which it grows, but, for all that, it is not a sentimental flower in many respects. It is a vegetable epicure. It likes rich food, and great quantities of it. Unless it can be gratified in this respect it will refuse to give you the large, fine flowers which every Rose-grower, professional or amateur, is constantly striving after. ”

“ We may say that just as purples in flowers look best, or have a greater degree of expression, when appearing in or with reds, so do the most delicate rose and pink shades appeal most to us when they appear as a tinge or blush on white flowers. Probably the flower that gives the most pleasure on account of its beautiful flesh-tints of different shades is the Gloire de Dîjon rose, so common with us and so universal a favourite. ”

“ Being dedicated to the goddess of beauty and god of love, the Rose often plays her part in the tender and sentimental scenes so especially patronized by those tutelar divinities, and many an oft-used but still current simile is drawn from the blushing hue, the surpassing loveliness, and the cruel thorns of the fair emblem-flower. ”

“ For all that it be yesterday's, in memory of her.
The rose that loveth lovers, the rose lets fall a tear
Because my arms are empty, because she is not here.
VIII
THE WREATH
White violet with the tender-leaved narcissus I will twine,
And the laughing lips of lilies with myrtle blooms combine;
And I will bind the hyacinth, the dark red-purple flower,
With crocus sweet and roses that are the lovers' dower,
To make the wreath that Heliodore's curl-scented brow shall wear,
To strew with falling petals the glory of her hair. ”

“ Droop all the flowers in my garden,
⁠All their fair heads hang low;
For rose, their fairest companion,
⁠Never again will they know.
Bring me no flowers for wearing,
⁠Take these strange buds away,
For I cannot now have the fairest—
⁠My rose that has died to-day.
What has blighted my blossom?
⁠Stricken it down with death. ”

“ Try a bed of these ever-bloomers for a season and you will never afterward be without them. Other flowers will rival them in brilliance, perhaps, and may require less attention, but—they will not be Roses! One fine Rose affords more pleasure to the lover of the best among flowers than a whole garden full of ordinary blossoms can, and this is why I urge all flower-loving people to undertake the culture of the ever-blooming class of Roses, for I know they will give greater satisfaction than anything else you can grow. ”

“ In other words, no matter how much care you bestow upon a rose bush, its flower will still be a rose,—it may be a better rose, a stronger, sturdier rose, a better smelling and a more beautiful rose, but it is still a rose. ”

“ The green rose of the florists is a case in which the leaves that should have been changed into petals to form a perfect rose flower have persisted in continuing green leaves, though masquerading as petals ”

“ Certainly a rose is a lovely flower, and it is wonderful what gardeners have done to tend, improve, and develop it, and it was hard to imagine that any of the great double complex blossoms that I held in my hand, were first cousin, and lineally descended from the wild rose of the hedges. ”

“ ODE LV. [1] While we invoke the wreathed spring,
Resplendent rose! to thee we'll sing;
Resplendent rose, the flower of flowers,
Whose breath perfumes the Olympian bowers;
Whose virgin blush, of chastened dye,
Enchants so much our mortal eye.
When pleasure's spring-tide season glows.
The Graces love to wreathe the rose;
And Venus, in its fresh-blown leaves,
An emblem of herself perceives.
Oft hath the poet's magic tongue
The rose's fair luxuriance sung ”

“ The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago,
And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow;
But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood,
And the yellow sun-flower by the brook in autumn beauty stood,
Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men,
And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen. ”

“ When properly cultivated, few objects can be more beautiful than these roses, either singly or in masses. Without making so brilliant a show as some other classes, the moss which envelops them imparts a touch of graceful beauty belonging to no other flower. ”

“ Rose, with roundish seed-buds; flowers very small, flesh-coloured, and of a deep red in the centre; leaflets egg-shaped, sharp-pointed, and small, hairy beneath, with finely sawed glandular margins. It is a dwarf shrub; stem and petioles prickly; the spines of the branches are scattered and straight.
This elegant little plant proves, as we imagined it would, distinct from the minor variety, whose flower and leaves we find subject to vary both in size and colour, but in the present true original species they are not. ”

“ Rose, rōz, n. any shrub of the genus Rosa, having stems generally prickly, flowers terminal, often corymbose, in colour white, yellow, pink, or red: a flower of one of these shrubs: any one of various plants resembling the true rose: a rosette: a perforated nozzle of a pipe, &c.: light crimson, the colour of the rose: an ornamental tie: erysipelas: (her.) a conventional representation of the flower.—v.t. to flush.—n. Rose′-acā′cia, the moss-locust, a tree with deep rose-coloured flowers.—adjs. Rō′seal, like a rose in smell or colour ”

“ The rose, the jessamine, the violet, the narcissus, the hyacinth, the anemone, the tulip, the ranunculus, the carnation, the lily, and an infinity of other flowers, which in other places bloom at various times, come all into flower at once in this spot; and nothing can be softer than the air you breathe in this garden. ”

“ If among them all there be a Rose, you will then find why it was that she was Flower Queen in Eden, and in all ages. No matter what rivals are present, the Rose will first suggest Woman—Woman in her most exquisite loveliness.
We find, indeed, in detail, that no [Pg 587] flower furnishes so many obvious points of comparison to a fair girl. Its delicate tints of white and red are suggestive of her complexion, the bud is like prettily pouting lips, while the exquisite perfume is, especially among the excitable children of the East, the most daintily piquant of exotic stimulants. ”

“ How fair is the Rose! what a beautiful flower!
The glory of April and May:
But the leaves are beginning to fade in an hour,
And they wither and die in a day.
Yet the Rose has one powerful virtue to boast,
Above all the flowers of the field!
When its leaves are all dead and fine colours are lost,
Still how sweet a perfume it will yield! ”

“ That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers,
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet,
The glowing violet,
The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine,
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears; ”

“ To this class we would especially commend the Rose; as thriving under simple treatment, as possessing, more than any other flower, the elements of beauty, and tending, like other flowers, to keep alive in a crowded city that freshness and purity of feeling that distinguished their country life, and which, unless there exists an unusual perversion of the moral faculties, must always result from an intimate acquaintance with natural objects. ”

“ I saw the sweetest flower wild nature yields,
A fresh-blown musk-rose; 'twas the first that threw
Its sweets upon the summer: graceful it grew
As is the wand that queen Titania wields. ”

“ There may, also, be a mistake in the species of roses; for experienced gardeners inform me that the Musk Rose will, if it be a lusty plant, bear flowers in autumn without cutting; and, therefore, that may unjustly be ascribed to art, which is the bare production of nature.” Thus, in quaint and ancient style, discourses the wise and pious philosopher on our favorite flower, and also mentions the fact, that a red rose becomes white on being exposed to the fumes of sulphur. ”

“ The violet, like the rose and lily, has ever been the poet’s flower. This is not one of our earliest violets; it blossoms later than the early white violet, V. rotundifolia or than the early Blue Violet, V. cucullata, or that delicate species V. striata, the lilac striped violet, which adorns the banks and hill sides on some of our plain lands, early in the month of May. ”

“ The most esteemed kinds of rose among us are those of Præneste1885 and Campania.1886 Some persons have added to these varieties the rose of Miletus,1887 the flower of which is an extremely brilliant red, and has never more than a dozen petals. ”