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In Love and War: The Saga of the Rose

© Audrey Stallsmith

For Valentine's Day, let's consider the bloom which has been the symbol of romantic love for centuries. A simple shifting of the letter E, after all, turns rose into Eros. The frequent poetic comparisons of females to the flower may not be altogether complimentary, though, since the rose is a notoriously thorny and temperamental plant!

This, however, only adds to "her" allure. As Spenser put it, "Sweet is the rose, but grows upon a brere. . ./ So every sweet with sowre is tempered still,/ That maketh it be coveted the more:/ For easy things that may be got at will,/ Most sorts of men doe set but little store."

The ancient Romans certainly couldn't get enough of this "difficult" Persian-born beauty. They strewed rose petals inches deep at their bacchanals, and Nero's fountains spouted rosewater. A few guests even smothered under a deluge of petals from a balcony--a literal example of the wealthy drowning in their own excess! A rose suspended over the table warned that everything said must remain secret or "sub rosa."

Knights returning from the Crusades may have introduced the gallica rose to Britain. Gallica officinalis (a.k.a. the Apothecary Rose) was the Red Rose of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses. The White Rose of York is believed to have been either alba semi-plena or alba Maxima.

In his version of those down-and-dirty conflicts, Shakespeare has Richard saying, "Let him that is a true-born gentleman/ And stands upon the honor of his birth. . ./ From off this brier pluck a white rose with me." Somerset retorts, "Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer,/ But dare maintain the party of the truth,/ Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me."

Despite this bloody stain on her reputation, the Apothecary Rose was widely respected as a healer. In his 1597 herbal, Gerard recommended grinding the petals with sugar to "strengthen the heart and take away the shaking and trembling thereof." Bancke's Herbal prescribed honey of rose for "feeble, sick, phlegmatic, melancholy, and choleric people." John Heinerman touts rose petal tea as a treatment for two modern diseases: anoerexia and bulimia.

Otto of roses was supposedly discovered in the early 1600's in a canal filled with rosewater for a Persian princess's wedding feast. The happy couple noticed an oil separating from the water. When skimmed off, this ungent proved fit for a princess. And, considering that at least a hundred thousand roses were required for a butter-thick ounce of attar, a princess was one of the few who could afford it!

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