Pictured here is the first open bloom of a rose bush my children picked out for my wife this past Mother’s day. She had mentioned she wanted a rose bush and our oldest daughter knows Mommy’s favorite color is yellow, so a yellow rose bush it is.

I decided to draw this rose for some practice and as I pondered the image I began to wonder why roses are held in such high regard versus other flower types. As Sesame Street’s Elmo might say, “What do we do when we want to learn something? We look it up!”

So, after a couple of quick searches I found a lot of different opinions. I did find that culturally across the world the rose holds special significance, even from times of antiquity. According to this article on Slate, even the Minoan culture held roses in high regard. It also mentions that some Eastern cultures have folklore around how the rose became a predominate flower.

Let us not forget Shakespeare’s famous line in Romeo and Juliet, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Indicating a prominence of the rose as a highly valued flower throughout classic England.

Today, the rose’s place as ‘top flower’ is apparent in many places. This article from Bouqs, a flower retailer, lists places across the globe and the special meaning roses have there.

While I did not find a single definitive answer as to why the rose is so valued it was an interesting search. As for me, I say they look great, smell wonderful, and are pleasing to draw!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Jim Sponseller – mindescapes.net – 2021