Rose Trivia

The largest rose bloom ever bred was a pink rose measuring approximately 33 inches in diameter, bred by Nikita K. Rulhoksoffski from San Onofre, California.

The largest living rose is in Tombstone, Arizona.  When it is in bloom it has over 200,000 blossoms, and is supported by an arbour under which people can sit.  It is a white Rosa banksiae.

The longest living rose is believed to be over a thousand years old and grows on the wall of Hildesheim in Germany.  Its presence has been documented since 815 A.D. It is a wild dog rose, or Rosa canina.

Rosa Mundi (R. gallica versicolor) is the oldest striped rose variety, available since 1581.

The oldest fossilized imprint of a rose was found in Florissant, Colorado, and is estimated to be 35 million years old.

One rose hip contains as many as 40 to 50 seeds.

The miniature rose Overnight Sensation was the first rose to leave Earth for experiments in space. The purpose was to test the effect of low gravity on fragrance.

Rose hips contain more Vitamin C than oranges. The farther north of the equator a rose hip is grown, the richer it is said to be in Vitamin C.  Rugosa rose hips are said to be the best source of Vitamin C. 

There are no species roses which originate south of the equator.

Buds of the smallest roses are the size of a grain of rice.

There are no true-blue or black species roses because roses lack a gene to produce delphinidin, which is the source of blue coloring.

The rose is the national flower of England, Honduras, Iran, Poland, Romania, and the United States.  It is the official state flower of Georgia, Iowa, New York, North Dakota, the District of Columbia, and the province of Alberta.

The state flower of Georgia, the Cherokee Rose, is R. laevigata, which actually originated in China.  Scholars are unsure how it managed to spread across the southern United States by the time Michaux discovered it in Georgia in 1788.

June is National Rose Month in the United States.

The American Rose Society was appointed the International Registration Authority for Roses at the 14^th International Horticultural Congress in Scheveningen, Holland in 1955.

The rose was chosen as herb of the year for 2012.

The Peace Rose was first known as #3-35-40 and was hybridized by Francis Meilland in 1935.  Buds were passed around the world, and several nurseries started growing it. A German nursery called it Gloria Dei, an Italian nursery called it Gioia, and it was also known as Madame A. Meilland in honor of the hybridizer’s mother. It was formally named and introduced on April 29, 1945, as the Peace Rose.

Attar of roses takes 180 pounds (82 kg) of roses—about 60,000 flowers—to make a fluid ounce (28 ml) of rose oil.

Most often, the highest concentration of fragrance is in the rose petal.

The first patent issued for a plant was a patent for a hybridized rose which gave ever-blooming characteristics to the climbing rose. It was issued by the United States Patent Office on August 18, 1931.

The Rose Bowl Parade started as a procession of flower-covered carriages in 1890 as a celebration of California’s mild winter climate.

The Tournament of Roses was patterned after  the Battle of the Flowers held in Nice, France. Afternoon games included foot races, tug-of-war contests, and sack races.

On October 11, 1492, the crew on the Nina sighted a branch with rose berries in the ocean.  The ship had been becalmed in the Sargasso Sea, and this, along with other sightings, encouraged the crew and Christopher Columbus to press onward and discover America.  We don’t know whether rose berries refers to red berries, or rose hips.

The Latin phrase sub rosa means "under the rose" and is used in English to denote secrecy or confidentiality.

The War of the Roses in England was fought between the House of Lancaster, which had a red rose as its emblem, and the House of York, which had a white rose as its emblem.  Soldiers at that time did not wear uniforms, but did wear a small patch on their clothing to identify the side of the battle they were on. The ultimate winner in the War of the Roses was Henry Tudor, and the Tudors adopted a badge that featured both red and white.

Emblem of House of Lancaster	Emblem of House of York