ipoapTisj^nvrr *"■ ir~-v I *• 



Mabch 24, 1910. 



THc Weekly Florists^ Review* 



\5 



Latest General View of Plant A of Poehlmann Bros. Co.t Morton Grove, 111. 



(Plant B, not shown In this picture, has a glass ai-ea a little greater than that of Plant A.) 



blanda, and Kosa setigera, the prairie 

 rose, the parent of some of our recent 

 productions. 



The genus rosa is variously estimated 

 as containing from thirty to 250 species, 

 depending upon whether the botanists 

 take a conservative, a moderate or a rad- 

 ical view of the species question. When 

 one considers the ease and readiness with 

 which the various species cross with one 

 another, as demonstrated in the evolution 

 of the garden rose, perhaps an explana- 

 tion maj' be found for the larger number 

 of species referred to. Perhaps about 

 125 species would be a fair estimate, with 

 one-half the numbea* in Asia, two-fifths 

 of the remainder in Europe and northern 

 Africa, and the remainder in I^rth 

 America. 



The Rose in Literature. 



Finding the rose as widely distributed 

 as we do in all north temperate lands, 

 we should expect to find it in the litera- 

 ture of all the countries in that zone. 

 And such is the case, for the rose has 

 been the subject of song and story from 

 the days long before the Christian era 

 down to the present time. In each lan- 

 guage it has a name of its own, which 

 arouses perhaps in the breast of each 

 people the same tender recollections and 

 happy memories that the word "rose" 

 does in our own. In a great many of 

 these the resemblance is striking. For in- 

 stance, in Greek it is rhodon; in Celtic, 

 rhos; in Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portu- 

 guese, Hungarian and Polish it is rosa; 

 in French, Saxon and English, rose; in 

 German, rose, spelled the same way but 

 pronounced differently; in Dutch, roose; 

 in Slavonic, rhosha; in Eussian, ros; in 

 Bohemian, ruoze; in Arabic, ouasrath; 

 in Turkish, nisrin; in Hebrew, chabhat- 

 zeleth, and in Persian, gul. 



Let us now turn to the history of the 

 rose. How old is the rose? It is of 

 yreat antiquity. There is reason to be- 

 lieve that it flourished in the famous gar- 

 dens of Babylon, which existed about 

 1200 B. C. It was certainly cultivated 

 l>y the Jews during the reign of Solomon, 

 ibout 950 B. C. Homer, the great poet 

 'f ancient days, who flourished about 

 ■iSO B. C, paid homage to the rose in 

 he Iliad and Odyssey. Herodotus, who 

 'ived about 400 B. C, says that in the 

 ,'ardens of Macedonia there was a rose 

 *vhich flourished without culture, which 



had sixty petals and which emitted a 

 most delightful perfume. 



Mytfiology and Early History. 



In those olden times a mystical origin 

 was ascribed to most things, and to this 

 the rose was no exception. The creation 

 of the rose was credited to the goddess 

 Flora. The fable goes on to say that 

 Flora, finding one day the dead body of 

 one of her favorite nymphs, whose beauty 

 was only equaled by her virtue, implored 

 all the Olympian deities to aid her in 

 transforming this nymph into a flower. 

 The gods granted her request. Apollo 

 is said to have given the vivifying power 

 of his rays ; Bacchus contributed the nec- 

 tar; Vertumnus added the perfume; 

 Pomona supplied the fruit, and Flora 

 herself crowned all with a diadem of 

 flowers. Thus, according to the tradition, 

 was the rose created. 



The poetic instinct was keenly alive 

 in these olden days, and we find the peo- 

 ple appreciative of the beautiful and 

 blended colors of the rose, expressing 

 this appreciation in the consecration of 

 this flower to Aurora, the goddess of the 

 dawn. They also consecrated it to Har- 

 pocrates, the patron of silence, and so 

 with them the rose was symbolic of si- 

 lence. Thus arose the expression, "sub 

 rosa," meaning under the rose, indicat- 

 ing that all should be kept secret or si- 

 lent, and this expression persists to the 

 present day. 



The rose was greatly prized in the days 

 of Eome, being used in enormous quan- 

 tities for decorative purposes, and it was 

 freely employed on all festive occasions. 

 To the rich and great the term, "a bed 

 of roses," was a reality, for their 

 couches were frequently covered with a 

 mantle of rose petals. It is also related 

 that the tyrant Nero, in one of his feasts, 

 expended about $100,000 on roses alone. 

 Even in these days of advanced rose cul- 

 ture, with ample facilities for their pro- 

 duction, the market would be put to the 

 test to supply such a demand. I presume 

 there are men, however, in the country 

 who would like to take such a contract. 



Ancient Roman Greenliouses. 



Ancient Rome, too, had its four hun- 

 dred, and these insisted upon having 

 roses out of season. The gardeners of 

 those days complied with the demand and 

 furnished them. They, too, had their 



greenhouses, it is said, warmed by means 

 of pipes filled with hot water, by which 

 means they succeeded in keeping the 

 roses in bloom until the end of the year. 

 So roses under glass, you see, are by no 

 means a modern innovation. 



Passing from these early days of the 

 rose to the middle ages, we find Chaucer, 

 who wrote in the early part of the thir- 

 teenth century, referring to the rose. In 

 the beginning of the fifteenth century 

 our flower is said to have been cultivated 

 for commercial purposes. Eoses in those 

 days were apparently scarce and only for 

 the rich, for small quantities of them 

 were considered of sufficient value to off- 

 set the rent of house and land. Would 

 that we could pay our rent these days 

 with a few roses! 



In 1452, as you all know, the rose be- 

 came emblematic of war and bloodshed, 

 losing for the time its significance of 

 peace. It was perhaps the thorns and 

 not the flowers that were the real em- 

 blems of the war. It was in this year 

 that the rival factions of the white and 

 the red rose sprang up in England; the 

 former was the emblem of the house of 

 York, while the red rose stood for the 

 house of Lancaster. You all know of 

 the furious wars which followed, and 

 how Henry VII, in 1486, reunited the 

 two houses by marrying Elizabeth, the 

 heiress of the house of York. 



Shakespeare's appreciation of the rose 

 was evident in his numerous references 

 to it in his works. 



Beginning of Modern Rose Culture. 



It was not, however, until the early 

 part of the nineteenth century that rose 

 culture, as we now know it, existed. From 

 that time on the rose has been preemi- 

 nent. Certain wild forms were, of 

 course, first introduced, and these, per- 

 haps at first by accidental crossings, re- 

 sulted in hybrids. Man soon took the 

 cue thus accidentally shown, and began 

 to experiment for himself, first crossing 

 the natural species at his hand, then 

 hybrids with species, and later hybrids 

 with hybrids, and the progeny thus pro- 

 duced was again crossed with species. 

 You can well understand that soon all 

 traces and resemblances to the original 

 forms were lost. This crossing and re- 

 crossing have caused such confusion that 

 it is all but impossible to classify -gar- 

 den roses. Take any book you will and 



