First Date Roses

The Rose is a flowering shrub of the Rosa genus, being a part of the Rosaceae family. We admit the rose's distinction as the "queen flower", so called because of its symbolism and variety.
By hybridization, the specialists had made the greatest change on the rose's aspect, adding more petals. A rose had had only five petals, as the wild roses and those who are growing on the end of the road are having now. Except them, all the roses' species have numerous petals. That's why the Greek origin of the "rose" word means "30 petals". And it's not all: there are more than 30 thousand rose's species with different colors and flavor.

We have to point out that, after a laboratory work, was created the blue version of the rose. So called "blue roses" were traditionally made from dyeing white roses. But the true blue colored rose appeared in 2004 using a genetic process, by conventional hybridization methods.

Rose's apparition legends

The rose was one of the most popular ancient symbols of the love and beauty. There are a lot of legends about the rose's apparition.

One of these, the Greek one says that this flower was special created by the gods. Chloris, flowers' Goddess, wanted to make a unique flower by one of her darling nymphs who had passed away. Therefore she called the Dyonissos God to give him perfume, the Three Graces (Brightness, Happiness and Glamour). Zephyr, the spring wind God, had averted the clouds letting the Apollo God to illuminate and making the rose flower. Then finely came Ares, God of the war, who gave the spines to the rose, for this to defend itself against the other flowers' envy.

A Latin legend says that on the beginning there were only white roses. The red roses appeared when Jupiter had couth out the Venus swimming in a lake surrounded by white roses. The Goddess blushed and all roses around her became red beyond her face's color.
The rose was a sacred flower. From the Rome old-timers we are now inheriting the phrase "sub rosa" ("under a rose") that means to keep a secret. For its holiness, the rose was put on the door of a room when those who were inside had confidential matters to discuss.

Later, the Christians came to consider the red roses as pagan flowers and all love rituals too. They associated the white rose with Virgin Mary beyond Her purity. Colored roses

History and magic

Those who first mentioned the rose were the old Sumerians.
Great Alexander had brought the rose, as a war price, from Persia.

It says that Cleopatra Queen had received her fiancé, Antonius, in the throne chamber on a carpet full of roses.

The Sweden king had daily sent to his future wife, Silvia Sommerlath, by 12 yellow roses during 4 years.

We specified before that the red and white combination in a floral bouquet means a proposal. It came from the war between the two well known English families: York and Lancaster that had as a symbol a white and respectively red rose. When the war had finished, they became one single family, by a marriage, putting together the red and white rose.

Long ago, in Italy, the rose was a proposal flower. The amorous used to strew petals in front of his girlfriend's door. If she sweeps the roses in early morning, the proposal is rejected. But if the girl protects the petals from the wind, it means that they had only to establish the wedding day.

We couldn't forget the story of Tristan and Isolde that put the rose in the middle of the sincere love culture. The legend after their death says that on their tomb were growing two connected rose shrubs.

Symbolism

The rose is the most appropriate flower for express your love. So if your intentions are not quite sincere, don't you offer her roses, because it seams like a profession of love and she'll think that you are in love with her, especially the roses are red.

There is a Victorian "Language of Flowers" that specifies different types of rose with their own colors and symbols. We agree that the flowers' colors have a great influence to our interior system. Just seeing a color, our brain is emitting very special messages. According to it, we could punctuate the symbolism of the flowers' color:

Red - love

Pink - grace, gentle feelings of love

Dark Pink - gratitude

Light Pink - admiration, sympathy

White - innocence, purity, secrecy, friendship, reverence and humility

Yellow - Yellow roses generally mean dying love or platonic love. In German-speaking countries, however, they can mean jealousy and infidelity.

Yellow with red tips - friendship, falling in love

Orange - passion

Burgundy - beauty

Blue - mystery

Green: calm

Black - slavish devotion (as a true black rose is impossible to produce)

Purple - protection (paternal/maternal love)

Except for its color, the number of the roses matters too. The roses have to be offered with an odd number, if they are not more than ten. If you want to thank your girlfriend/wife for her love and support, give her twelve roses. For make her sure of your love, surprise her with a 36 roses bouquet.

A full-blown rose means the wish and happiness for being together. The rose punk can be interpreted as a doubt. A stem without spines signifies the trust. To make her understand that you want to break up, give her a flower with no stem.

Perfume

Rose perfumes are made from attar of roses or rose oil, which is a mixture of volatile essential oils obtained by steam-distilling the crushed petals of roses. The technique originated in Persia (the word Rose itself is from Persian) then spread through Arabia and India, but nowadays about 70% to 80% of production is in the Rose Valley near Kazanluk in Bulgaria, with some production in Qamsar in Iran and Germany. The Kaaba in Mecca is annually washed by the Iranian rose water from Qamsar. In Bulgaria, Iran and Germany, damask roses (Rosa damascena 'Trigintipetala') are used. In the French rose oil industry Rosa centifolia is used. The oil, pale yellow or yellow-grey in color, is sometimes called 'Rose Absolute' oil to distinguish it from diluted versions. The weight of oil extracted is about one three-thousandth to one six-thousandth of the weight of the flowers; for example, about 2,000 flowers are required to produce one gram of oil.

Resourec: EzineArticles.Com