Consider...

...the rose. Arguably the Queen of the garden. It's much too feminine to be the King. Roses have been in the fossil record for 35 million years. In nature, the genus Rosa has some 150 species spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Mexico and including northern Africa. Garden cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago, probably in China. During the Roman period, roses were grown extensively in the Middle East. They were used as confetti at celebrations, for medicinal purposes, and as a source of perfume. Roman nobility established large public rose gardens in the south of Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the popularity of roses seemed to rise and fall depending on gardening trends of the time.

There have been poems and songs about roses. Roses are red, except when they are the yellow rose of Texas. There was the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster which ended with the War of the Roses. Cities are named for roses. I lived in Roseburg, but to be honest that town was named after a man and not the flower. There are festivals like our Rose Festival and rose societies all over the world, no doubt. There must be thousands of rose gardens to enjoy this wonderful flower.

They are named for royalty as today I saw Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret over at my neighborhood rose garden. They are named for lofty ideals such as Honor and Peace. There are small, dainty roses like this one, and huge extravagant roses that take your breath away. They come in shimmering white to the deepest velvety reds and purples. Roses can be wound so tight that the layers never reveal the center, or they can be a single petaled rose, proudly show off their inner beauty. Some people devote their lives to the rose...cultivating and growing hundreds of roses.

Roses can stand tall and alone as the beautiful tea roses do, or be bunched together in a florabunda. They can climb or they can be miniature. People have made the rose all but sit up and beg. Maybe that is next.

The rose, spectacular as it is, is not necessarily my favorite flower. I am an equal opportunity flower lover and appreciate flowers in all of their beauty...from the regal rose to the dandelion. Each is beautiful.

Hope everything is coming up roses for you and yours, my blip buddies.