24 Interesting Facts About Roses

If you love flowers, you likely have a weakness for roses. Besides their beautiful appearance, roses stand out in their pungent smell and spiky thorns. They stand out with their different types, but roses are also symbolic.

When you gift someone a rose, there is always a significance to its color and appearance. However, these timeless gifts of love also have a few hidden facts that most of us probably didn’t know about.

This article will explore those interesting facts about roses that will leave you scratching your head.

Basic Information about Roses

Name: Rose
Latin name: Rosa
Description:
- Size: ranges between 1.25 cm to 17.5 cm on an average
- Colors: Red, yellow, blue, pink, white, orange, etc.
- Types of Roses: Over 300 different varieties are known to man

Habitat: Native to parts of Asia, especially in China.

Cultivation: Sunny and well-drained soil

Uses and benefits: ornamental, medicinal, used in perfumes, skincare

Roses care: Planting should start in spring and then require at least an inch of water every week

Allergic potential: contains allergens in the form of pollens

Now that you are familiar with the few fundamental ideologies about roses, let us walk you through a bunch of interesting facts about this flower:

24 Interesting Facts About Roses

Surprisingly, despite being one of the most popular and accessible flowers worldwide, Roses still hide a lot of surprises. As a result, they are more than what meets the eye, and that’s precisely what we’d explore in this section of the article.

In the Holy Bible, Roses are one of the only three flowers mentioned in the book. Besides rose, the Bible said lilies and camphire as the remaining two.
The national flower of the United States is the Rose. However, a few states like Georgia, Iowa, North Dakota, and Washington D.C have their varieties of the rose as their national flower.
After years of persistent hybrid breeding in horticulture, it was in 2004 that the world got its first Blue Rose. It is tough to grow and is a rare type and color of rose available in a few parts.
Greek legends suggest that Roses were an essential part of the representation of Aphrodite, the Goddess of love. No doubt roses are heavily used in the present world to declare love and affection.
The most expensive rose in the world, the Juliet Rose, was cultivated by a world-renowned rose breeder, David Austin. He spent over 4 million dollars growing and caring for the rose and is valued at $15.8 million.
There are over three hundred different species of roses and tens of thousands of cultivators available globally in the present world.
Would you be surprised if we said that roses grow a rosehip fruit? It is a popular berry that is eaten in the form of jams, jellies, etc. The seed oil from the fruit is also used in skincare and is quite a rare ingredient.
Most of the known rose species in the world are native to Asia. The same is followed by North America, and a few are native to Europe and southwest Africa.
Contrary to popular belief, the “black” rose that most people rave about is non-existent. There is no black rose known to man at present. However, the “black” appearance of the rose is due to the extremely dark red shade of the flower.
Pure rose oil requires around 2000 roses to extract 1 gram of pure essential oil. So, it is no doubt that rose oil is costly and a luxury.
There are varying types and colors of roses, including rainbow, red, pink, yellow, white, orange, and blue. The wild roses (rare) bloom once a year and are naturally cross-pollinated by insects living in the close vicinity.
Records suggest that the tallest rose bush measured 8.705 m in length and is found in Vienna, Austria.
Did you call the sharp thorns on the rose “thorns”? Well, they are known as prickles and not thorns. Besides hurting you when you pluck roses, the “thorns” are sickle-shaped, supporting the rose that grows as climbers.
Surprisingly, a rose can live up to 35 years with proper care and weather conditions.
During the reign of Napolean, he used to gift bags of roses to his officers and soldiers. Legends believe that Napolean advised his army to boil the rose petals with white wine to cure cases of lead poisoning that claimed many lives during that period.
If we scoured through the internet, we’d find a minimum of 4000 songs that have roses mentioned in them.
Following the discovery of a rose fossil in Colorado, archaeologists depict that roses have existed in the world for over 35 million years.
Different colored roses have different meanings. This is why roses are chosen as a common gifting flower due to their sacred purpose. For example, red roses signify love, white roses mean purity and innocence, yellow roses signify friendship, warmth, joy, pink roses depict gratitude and admiration, blue roses mean unattainable love, etc.
Roses are few of the edible flowers known to humanity. However, the petals can be eaten raw, dried, soaked, or even cooked, for that matter.
Roses have potent medicinal properties, especially for skin healing, so they are a staple in Chinese medicine.
The trend of rainbow roses became popular recently. The same happens when you cut the stem of a white rose into seven sections and dip each section into colored water. Over a few hours, the roses will change their color and attain a beautiful rainbow appearance.
At present, the oldest living rose is 1000 years old and is found growing on the walls of Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany.
A famous Rose Hall of Fame showcases all the world’s popular types of roses, and the winning roses are voted by the organizers and members of the esteemed World Federation of Rose Societies.
Not just a pet, even a rose named the Overnight Scentsation was sent to orbit on the Discovery mission STS-95 in 1998.

Conclusion

Roses are more than the symbolism of love, and these facts are a testament to that. How many of these individual facts did you know about? Also, if you have any other facts about roses you’d like to share, leave them in the comments for other readers to engage with.