Roses are the national flower of England but they’re probably more synonymous worldwide with romance! How much do you know about why they’re so popular, and their particular association with love? Here are some facts that you might not know about roses…

  1. Did you know there are over 100 species of roses with over a 1000 cultivars? One of the most famous rose grower in England is David Austin who has won countless medals from the RHS over the years for his beautiful varieties.
  2. England is synonymous with the red rose because of the ‘War of the Roses’. It became the symbol of England after the war ended with the houses of Lancastrian merging with the Yorkists (represented by the white flower within) – cadet branches of the Plantagenets who went to war over control of the royal house.
  3. Roses are also heavily associated with romance. In the classical era the rose was synonymous with the Greek and Roman goddesses of love Aphrodite and Venus.
  4. Did you know that the phrase sub rosa or ‘under the rose’ means to keep a secret and is derived from an Ancient Roman practice of placing a wild rose on the door of a room where secret or confidential matters were discussed?
  5. Roses are also found in cooking, with their most common application being confectionary. English Rose Creams are chocolates with a filling made from rose water with sugared rose petals on top. Did you know that using rose water in cooking actually originated in Persia, spreading through Arabia and India before reaching Europe?
  6. The world’s most famous playwright wrote one of the most famous lines in history about a rose. Did you know that this commonly used phrase below comes from Romeo and Juliet? “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.”
  7. Some roses can grow to reach as much as 50ft or roughly 15 metres! But most climbing roses reach between 8 and 15 feet tall.