In central Asia, where the ancient Persians used to reside, there was a bird called Bulbul, the nightingale. A shrill, plain, palm-sized little thing, the nightingale could boast nothing about himself except for his pride. As he watched the other birds flaunt their beauty, talent, and mimicry, the nightingale resolved, that if heaven never gifted him with a name, he would make one himself. Day in and day out, he trained his voice with the violent passion of a peacock, hoping to make himself beautiful.

Yet the nightingale could not sing. Though he toiled and tortured himself, the best of his songs made out as though his throat was a chalkboard and his voice was made of nails. The sound scraped the bird’s lungs and even the ears and brain of any unfortunate passersby. The nightingale knew this, and in his desperation he screeched and screeched harder, morning until night, begging himself and the cold world for some sign of beauty.

Until one day, he could screech no more. Exhausted and devastated, the nightingale collapsed amongst brambles and thorns and wept silently; that was the only thing to do as the last of his hope, scraped from his body, was swept into the empty air. In the nightingale’s grief, he didn’t notice his tears watering the briar before him until he was completely enveloped by a sweet, intoxicating smell that grew around him.

Then he looked up to find… beauty. A beautiful white flower bursting with silken petals sat in front of him: a rose.

When his eyes landed upon her, he fell violently into love. He found quickly that he couldn’t reach her, for she was covered in thorns, nor could he wave her down, for she had no eyes, and in his desperation, he opened his mouth to cry out for her. And miraculously, he found that he could. For the first time, his voice sprang up to match the beauty he saw before him, and his cry had curled into his first song.

And she— she could not see him, but she fell in love with his voice. She had heard the desperate screams that came from him before and felt the bitter tears he fed her, and so she knew that the song that rose from him was made for her.

The two of them became inseparable. Yet they could never reach each other due to the barrier of spear-like thorns that covered her body. And when winter came, the nightingale fretted endlessly as snow covered his love like a disease… and then it killed her.

Losing his voice, the nightingale wept silently and revisited where his lover once stood, all winter long, and until spring.

Then one morning, a bud came back. The nightingale threw himself to hope. He began to sing, and to the sound of his voice, the rose returned. The nightingale was overcome with his emotion and ran toward her, embracing her so tightly that her thorns pierced his heart and painted the roses red.

This is said to be where the rose originated, and for years this story has been interpreted as one of love. By association, the red rose became a symbol of irresistible passion for love, one worth sacrificing everything. The iconography and symbolism became world-renowned, and in Persia, depictions of the two lovers became so prevalent that by the Qajar Dynasty (1794-1925) it began to define the nation. Gulistan, it was called, the Country Rose (Iran, the Land of Roses and Nightingales).

Yet, it’s hard to wholeheartedly stamp the label of a love story on a relationship so drenched in tragedy. And if you look into many of the stories encompassing the rose across the globe, you might find that beneath all the passion and love, there’s a layer of underlying meaning that might make people hesitate before buying their loved ones another beautiful package of symbolic implications.

But why? A rose is a rose is a rose. At first glance, nothing about the rose screams “love.” The Rose Family (Rosaceae) was named after the rose not because the plant is unique but because it’s the “type plant” of all its members. Like most of its family, the rose has five base petals on hermaphroditic flowers, cyanide-brushed seeds, and nutritious fruits containing vitamin C (other members of this plant being apple, cherry, strawberry, and almond).

Although many members of this family can be propagated with softwood cuttings (new branches), I’ve never had much success with the standard propagation method of throwing a third of the plant in water; this method is not recommended. Instead, many recommend placing cut stems in the soil (often after applying rooting hormone) and keeping these moist and disease-free. Yet this can take weeks or months and are frequently unsuccessful.

The rose often requires frequent pruning and cleanup to prevent a painful and unruly mess of fungal disease.

Roses are famous for fungal diseases, of which there are a plethora:

Disease	Colour	Symptoms	Cause
Powdery Mildew	White	Powder (often on young leaves/stems), distorted/reddened leaves	Humid weather with limited rain
Mosaic	Yellow-white	Lightened veins, disappear in the summer but reappear in the fall (often mistaken for nutrient deficiency)	Virus spread by pests (aphids/mites/etc) or pollen
Rust	Yellow	Powdery spots over the leaves	Humid cool weather
Blight	Yellow-brown	Canker, petal-tip browning	Still air and water accumulation
Rose rosette	Red	Reddish, swollen stems, increased thorns, thin leaves (often dies over winter)	Virus transmitted by mite
Downy Mildew	Red/brown	Dark spots, (sometimes) red thread-line stem splits, rapidity (germinates in 4h)	Humid cool weather (often around sundown and over the winter)
Bortrytis/Ghost spotting/Stem Canker	Gray/pink/brown	Spots/blight, canker	Still air and water accumulation
Cercospora leaf spot / Antrhacnose	Maroon/purple	Spots with defined edges and dead-cell centers	Hot humid (Cercospora) / Cool dry (Anthracnose)
Black spot fungus	Black	Black spots with feathery edges on leaves, leaves yellow and fall off	Warm wet weather
Pytophthora root rot	–	Crispy leaf edges, leaves falling from the ground up, lack of feeder roots	Poorly drained soil
Armillaria root rot	–	White mold at base/root, appearance of brown mushrooms	Drought
Slime mold	–	Gooey ground	Warm wet weather

The plant might also suffer from fasciation (flattened leaves), crown galls/tumors, aphids, and ants…

To prevent many of these diseases, rose gardeners recommend roses be placed in a place with ample ventilation, uncluttered space, and at least 5-6 hours of direct sunlight (ie. environment and upkeep). The dead matter should be cleared, and twice weekly roses should be watered between 12 pm and 6 pm around the root’s perimeter (the water line), after which the plant should be monitored for pests and stressors.

Where disease is unavoidable, the plant requires fungicides. In some cases, natural fungicides (1 part baking soda: 10 parts water: a drop of soap) are effective as a biorational solution (baking soda combats the fungus, and the soap adheres the powder to the leaves while breaking down pests’ cellular lining), but the effectiveness of solutions often depends on the geographical location; poor conditions invite infestation to recoup quickly.

Improper pruning can still lead to unruly bushes, and chemical fertilizers can lead to soft shoots infested with pests. Some people have developed strict regiments and schedules for fertilizer (natural, granular), dead-heading (only up until the end of the season, so as not to promote new flowers before frost), and pruning (directing the buds outward for bushier, spaced canes). The rose doesn’t make this easy, with its thick canes and sharp thorns.

On top of all this, not all roses are built the same. Roses come in all shapes, colors, and sizes, each needing slightly different treatment.

These are just some of the different varieties to keep an eye out for:

Name	Zone	Area	Description
Wild Rose	3-8	Native: Asia, Africa, Europe, North America	Hardy, not hybridized, single petals
Damask Rose	4-11	Native: Syria (Asia)	Bloom once unless in the name
China rose	5-11	Native: China (Asia)	Smaller continuous blooms, less fragrance, suntan over time
Polyantha/multiflora rose	5-9	Native: Southeast Asia	compact, large cluster of small blooms, low maintenance
English rose	5-11	Native: Europe	Hardy, disease resistant, shrubby, single bloom
Tea rose	7-9	Hybrid: China rose cultivars	Florist’s classic rose, not cold hardy, originally yellow, continuous blooms
Hybrid Tea rose	6-11	Hybrid: English rose + Tea rose (Graft)	Large buds, reblooms, not disease resistant, for cut flowers
Floribunda rose	6-10	Hybrid: Polyantha + Hybrid tea rose	Not much scent, hardy
Grandiflora rose		Hybrid: Floribunda +hybrid tea rose
Miniature rose	6-9	Hybrid: Grandiflora + hybrid tea rose	Hardy, 10”
Bourbon Rose	5-11	Hybrid: Damask rose + China rose	(reunion) heady scent, few to no thorns, trained to climb (5-11)

Note: European species tend to bloom once annually, while Orientals have continuous blooms. For an unknown reason, no roses originate from the southern hemisphere, but Ecuador is a now a global provider.

For example, some roses (like wild roses) can survive the temperature dips of USDA Zone 3; both China roses and English roses are hardy, surviving in climates as cold as Zone 5; but the tea rose, a darling of the florist that was hybridized between China and English roses, despises the cold, standing nothing lower than a Zone 6. Some varieties are disease resistant, but the degree of resistance depends on the type of breeding. Along with the variety of roses, there are also different growing patterns. Groundcover and shrub roses stay close to the ground and are usually hardier than rambling and vine roses.

Perhaps the difficulty of managing a rose bush adds to the analogy of love. Love can be beautiful and intoxicating, as with the rose’s flowers, but at the same time, they can be toil-some and painful. Yet without this kind of labor, love can become too messy and ugly and unmanageable, and, though you might enjoy the beautiful moments that bloom from it every year, the love might kill itself with its growth in the future (just as an overgrown rose may invite a series of fungal infestation if it goes unchecked).

Some cultures embrace this difficulty. The Damask rose (deemed the most fragrant and often the most sought) is grown in the humid Valley of Roses in Bulgaria. They are picked one by one and placed in willow baskets every morning before dawn, later becoming the attar of roses through an arduous and expensive process in which four hundred pounds of petals make one small pound of oil.

(It’s also important to note that some rose varieties, like the bourbon rose, transcended this analogy by being bred thornless).

In a physical sense, it also tracks that the rose’s flower has become associated with love, or at least lust. Like many other plant-based aphrodisiacs, the plant’s phenolic acids, which are partially meant to serve in the plant’s personal growth and defense system, contain antioxidants. Cosmetic businesses worldwide tout the ability of antioxidants to make a person look more attractive (antioxidants are thought to fight free radicals and improve skin quality but also improves bodily functions, which increases libido.

More specifically, the rose is chock full of vitamin C and flavonoids used to treat menstrual and abdominal discomfort while also acting as a mild laxative, easing and clearing digestive issues; this, as I mentioned in previous posts, clears up inflammations and improves immune system functioning, which cures swelling and cures headaches. While drinking rose tea is thought to clear cardiovascular issues like cholesterol and poor circulation, even smelling a rose seems to have healing effects, reducing cough, allergic symptoms, migraines (in some cases, it was even studied for its potential ability to inhibit amyloid β (Aβ) and slow down symptoms of dementia and epilepsy).

On the other hand, the rose is classified as hypnotic; studies suggest chemicals in the rose react with the brain like a relaxant, relieving some symptoms related to depression, stress, and tension, while facilitating sleep in much the same way as sleeping medication. This physical relaxation might sound contradictory to the passion associated with the red rose (especially in the story regarding the nightingale), but a state of mental relaxation and physical fitness is believed to improve performance.

Thus, it seems only natural that petals were often used in weddings and bedrooms globally, and eventually associated with the idea of love, marriage, and fertility as a whole. Just as the nightingale and rose was an advent of spring (and adjacently, fertility), the Roman festival Lupercalia (which is often thought to prelude Valentine’s Day) celebrated the gods of marriage and fertility, Juno and Pan, with the advent of spring between February 13 and 15. In Armenia, the rose was associated with the goddess of fertility and war, Anahit (or the Canaanite goddess Anahita), and in Ancient Egypt, it’s associated with Isis, the goddess of fertility and chaos. Greco-Roman culture not only associated the rose with the goddess of love, Aphrodite/Venus (bursting from her feet as she landed from the sea), but the god of lust and desire, Eros/Cupid. In India, the protector (Vishnu) and creator (Brahma) speculate which of the flowers is most superior, and Brahma creates a rose bush from which Vishnu’s Wife Lakshmi (fortune and prosperity) emerges.

Fun fact: Although the rose is thought to have originated from Central Asia, the oldest variety of rose currently belongs to the most romantic country in the world; it’s called the French Rose (Rosa gallica).

This association is seen throughout history, worldwide. In Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra famously won over Marc Antony’s love in a rose-filled room, and Shakespeare used the iconography of the rose most extensively in the most famous romance, Romeo and Juliet.

During a time when romance was not to be uttered with a medium so clumsy as words (ie. Victorian England), roses were used to express that romance in a language now called floriography, and you could reject people with the placement of a given flower over the bosom rather than the heart, or by returning the favor using the left hand rather than the right. This practice is partly passed down from Greco-Roman culture, Eros/Cupid bribed Harpocrates, the Egyptian-based god of silence, to keep quiet Aphrodite’s influence over the gods, and, since then, roses adorned the ceilings of rooms where secrets were uttered and held inside (“sub rosa,” or “under the rose” meaning confidentiality). For the same reason, the rose was interpreted to denote secret debauchery during Christian times; however, in Sufi mysticism, the rose represented the secrets of the divine, which would be yearned by the human spirit (the nightingale).  

Perhaps this widespread association between the rose and romance has permeated into culture to encompass other meanings. “Romance” might detail the love between two individuals, but it might just as easily symbolize an individual’s love for their country. In Persia, for example. While the iconography of the nightingale and rose might have spread with the popularity of the story, the characters evolved as they began to encompass a nation. Though it’s unclear whether the ancient Persians represented the nightingale, sacrificing themselves for the rose, this association is hardly localized, the rose representing both bravery and patriotism in Rome and Cyprus morality and the award for outstanding acts. It was believed that Rose gives courage and fearlessness. Some variation of this interpretation may have led to the popularity of “rose festivals” in countries like Azerbaijan (with the Pomegranate and Rose Festival), Bhutan, Brunei, China, and Cyprus, celebrating local heritage and community connections. In England, the War of Roses was a civil battle between two states that were both, perhaps ironically, adorned with the symbol of a rose, and the combination of these two roses has become an icon of the united country (similar unity might be signified about the East and West worlds through the wide hybridization of roses that give us the diversity we know today).

In some countries, this association of the rose with the state might have led to a very different kind of symbolism, in which the rose was associated with nobility. This is true in Cambodia, Japan, and both halves of Korea. This is fitting not only because many countries regard the rose as the “queen of flowers” but because roses are notoriously expensive, due to their low oil content and arduous care routines (as mentioned before). In other places, like Georgia, however, the rose might symbolize the love of the people, demonstrating hospitality toward guests.

All of this fits quite well with the idea that the rose symbolizes love and romance; perhaps this is why the association is so ingrained in global culture. However, it doesn’t explain the tragic tones of the rose’s symbolism. In Persia, the rose is the product of mourning and the cause of death; Georgia has a similar story of a rose sprouting from the tears of a young woman, and in Greece, Aphrodite cuts herself on the thorns of roses while running to her dying lover, Adonis, staining her white roses red. While the painting of roses is a lot less violent in Alice in Wonderland, the themes of bloodlust emerge later in the story through the Queen of Hearts’ predilection for execution.

In fact, in ancient culture, the Romans celebrated Rosaria, a festival meant to honor their dead. In its mythology, Chloris (Flora, in Greek mythology), the goddess of flowers, finds one of her nymphs dead in the woods, and, in her grief, she turns her into what she envisions will be the Queen of flowers— after transforming the nymph into a pink flower, she called on the gods to gift her beauty (from Aphrodite), perfume (Dionysus), and thorns (Mars). Other versions of the rose’s origin myth discard the notion of love entirely, such as in the story where Rhodanthe was so burdened by the courtship of men that Artemis/Diana transformed her into a rose. Though the tragedy of the nightingale has been interpreted as passionate sacrifice, other stories these don’t follow the same theme.

So, while it cultivated a culture of resilient love, perhaps the rose derived a separate meaning, one of transience and death. After all, flowers universally carry the symbol of ephemeral, temporary beauty, and the rose is occasionally given this symbolism in stories like Beauty and the Beast.

On the other hand, tragedy and love often go hand in hand in the culture surrounding the rose, and the rose doesn’t always symbolize positive beauty. In stories of the Prophet Mohammed, the yellowed rose was associated with his wife Aisha’s infidelity. Its associated goddess Anahit (or the Canaanite goddess Anat), isn’t just the goddess of fertility, but the goddess of war, associated with the Greek hunting goddess Artemis rather than the love goddess Aphrodite; likewise, Isis is the goddess of chaos. Love is fundamentally entwined with turmoil in the myths involving the rose because the rose isn’t simply a symbol of love.

Then what does it symbolize? With such a universal cohesion of symbolism, it’s not as simple as saying the rose just means different things in different places. There must be an underlying thread.

And perhaps it would be easier to see that thread if we make like social justice warriors, and see past color.

Or, more specifically, if we look past the symbolism of the red rose. If you know anything about floriography, you might have heard there are different roses for different occasions. Red roses for courtship, white roses for weddings, pink roses for gratitude, black roses for death.

This is the chart mapped out by color:

Colour	Flower meaning	General color associations
White	Innocence, purity, hope (Weddings, new beginnings)	Innocence, purity, hope
Pink	Gratitude, friendship, happiness (Thank you present, gift)	Love, compassion, nurture
Lavender	Enchantment, adoration	Pride, admiration, royalty
Red	True love, desire, remembrance	Love, hate, pleasure, rage, sacrifice
Orange	Passion	Optimism, enthusiasm
Yellow	Friendship, apology, jealous	Hope, betrayal, happiness, cowardice
Green	Hope, Rejuvenation, envy (Bay showers)	Growth, relief, envy, harmony
Blue	Mystery, rarity	Stability, wisdom
Black	Death	Darkness, fear, evil, death

Anyone with an illustration background (or at least terrorized an art student) will have already realized that the color association made with roses is almost the same as the general color associations made on the color wheel. Surveys of these associations have been done globally to find general associations often remained the same, with the variance of certain cultural associations (for example, in China, red might still be associated with love, but it is also more strongly associated with luck than it is in Western cultures) and gender differences.

This may seem obvious at first, Of course, the color association will translate over to flowers and bouquets; because flower bouquets often follow the rules of artistic color matching, the meaning associated with the color often refers to an amalgamation of flowers anyway.

And yet, if this facet (the changing of meanings) is specific to a rose, it may become apparent that the rose isn’t signifying romance singularly, but emotion and empathy. It signifies vastly different meanings, intentions, and emotions behind the slightest changes in aesthetics that emulate language but serve a more physical purpose. Because the rose does affect the body physically in a way that words often fail.

Thus, the rose is used in settings where people are vulnerable. It adorns hotel bedrooms, it cleanses religious houses, it diffuses the home. It’s used to signify the deepest parts of us, from our souls to our deities to our belief. And often, the growth of roses signifies the growth of the soul, which may have led to the rose’s symbolization of adaptation and resilience in Afghanistan, during its project, “Roses for Nangarhar,” the movement to switch opium poppies to Damask roses, or in Cyprus in the poem, “Roses of Bethlehem.” Yet, similarly, the rose touches on the fears and pain that come with opening up to others, and often directly conflicting with other people. Poetically speaking (discounting that it was a real civil war that had been fought in history), the War of Roses was the perfect symbol of the two states engulfed with the same purpose and ambition of saving their own country.

Perhaps this seems like a minor discrepancy, as the sentiment when giving roses remains the same. However, just as its impossible to parse the meaning of the rose from the flower itself (demonstrated in Gertrude Stein’s Sacred Emily with the line, “a rose is a rose is a rose”), it’s just as impossible to extricate the word “love” from the full and often detrimental embodiment of the rose, and its the full meaning of the flower that makes it beautiful. In a world where it feels impossible to express how you feel without getting convoluted by the details, it helps to talk in the abstract, it helps to use symbols. Symbols can be misinterpreted, but the concept of misinterpretation becomes obvious, and therefore we run along deeper lines of meaning to try to capture each others’ essence.

A single rose for my one and only,
Another if you agree to hold me.
Three is for the years to come,
Double if you leave for some.
And lost to quell the heat of seven;
Eight, the support of love and heaven.
Eternal love I give with nine,
But one more is for a love divine.
Eleven, you are my treasured gold;
Twelve, you’re the only true one I hold.
I’m at your mercy at fifteen and twenty-four.
I’ll fall for you again when I give one twelve more.
And if in you I find my rounds,
Another fifty to break the bounds.