My Red Rose Valentine

Red is favorite but beware of getting a yellow rose

by Charles M. Pickett

  The rose is the flower of passion. Its haunting fragrance and seductive beauty has inspired poets, infected cultures and intoxicated lovers for thousands of years. It has no equal.
  In India, the beautiful goddess Lakshmi was born in the heart of a rose. Generals in ancient Persia attached them to their shields as a symbol of victory. Garlands of roses were heaped around the feet of the Trojan horse and Cleopatra seduced Mark Antony with the help of the sultry flower.
  This year, Americans are expected to buy almost 95 million roses for Saint Valentine's Day. Chris Braunsdorf, marketing communications specialist for the Society of American Florists says roses are the top sellers, but mixed flower bouquets are a close second. Of the roses bought, Braunsdorf says, red roses are the overwhelming favorite.

O, my Luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my Luve is like the melodie,
That's sweetly played in tune.
- Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose

  "I think people are totally taken with them. All men love red roses," Donna Fuss says. Fuss, who is President of the Connecticut Rose Society and rosarian at Elizabeth Park in Hartford, says there are a multitude of varieties and colors including her favorite -- the apricot colored Oceana rose. But she said, people love red roses the most.
  Braunsdorf says an outstanding 76 percent of roses bought for Saint Valentine's Day are red, with pink far behind with eight percent of sales. His figures come from a 1996 American Floral Endowment Consumer Tracking Study. That study also indicated that of the cut flowers purchased for Saint Valentine's Day 43 percent were roses and 41 percent were mixed flower bouquets.
  Men purchase three quarters of all flowers bought for Saint Valentine's Day and a whopping 79 percent of those flowers will be given to a wife or significant other. When women buy flowers for Saint Valentine's day, most of their purchases go to mom (26 percent.)
  Jim Brazzell, president of the Southern Connecticut Rose Society, said the red rose is not only the most popular but it is the most hardy and resistant to bugs. He and his sister Joan Brazzell, who is chairman of the rose garden at the Boothe Memorial Garden in Stratford, tend the approximately 1,000 rose bushes of 50 different varieties.
  "The red rose has a long history with romance," Brazzell said, "it mirrors the color of the heart."

The red rose whispers of passion
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.
- John Boyle O'Reilly, A White Rose

  Baxter Phillip, vice president of Phillip's 1-800-Florals said the 74-year-old company sells a lot of red roses for the Saint Valentine's Day holiday, but there is a growing trend toward other colors.
  "The colors are increasing in popularity every year," Phillip said, "the women like the colors as much or more, but the guys are still buying red." He says his company will meet the holiday demand by using over 100 different varieties of roses.
  Roses of different colors convey different sentiments, but they vary depending on whom you ask. A red rose usually symbolizes love, passion and desire while a white rose may convey charm, purity and innocence. A gift of a rosebud might express beauty and youth but some people believe a yellow rose might mean the giver is jealous or suspects infidelity.
  When the Muslim prophet Mohammed was away at war, he had a premonition that his favorite wife Aisha was being unfaithful to him. This vision tormented Mohammed so much he begged the archangel Gabriel for help. Gabriel ordered Mohammed to have Aisha dip an object into a river on his return. If she were unfaithful, it would change color.
  When Mohammed returned, Aisha came running toward him carrying a bunch of red roses. Remembering Gabriel's command, the flowers were dipped in the water of a nearby river and turned yellow. Eventually, Mohammed forgave his favorite wife but, for some, the yellow rose remains a symbol of infidelity.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.
- Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope. One Perfect Rose

  Roses cost more on Saint Valentine's Day for a simple reason; supply and demand. After the demands of the Christmas season for red long-stemmed roses have been filled, growers need 50-70 days to produce enough for the Feb. 14 holiday, reports the Society of American Florists. This year, inclement weather in sections of the country will drive the prices of roses higher than usual. To fill the demand, suppliers will have to import more roses this Saint Valentine's Day.
  Once dedicated to the martyr St. Valentine, the holiday became associated with the union of lovers under conditions of duress. The association with love and courtship may have arisen during the Middle Ages, from the closeness of the Feb. 14 date to the Roman holiday of Lupercalia.
  That festival honored Faunus, the god of flocks and fertility. It featured sacrifices of goats and dogs, whippings of women and prayers intended to ensure fertility of people, fields and flocks. Thankfully, the Saint Valentine's Day holiday is celebrated with the pleasant exchange of romantic or comic greetings, gifts or flowers.

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
- Gertrude Stein, Sacred Emily.

  Steeped in myth, this flower of the Rosaceae family is constantly hybrid into new varieties and colors that compete with species that have been loved for centuries. Their potent scent today remains as sweet as it was 5,000 years ago, when the rose delighted growers in the ancient gardens of western Asia and north-eastern Africa.
When Cleopatra entertained Mark Antony on her barge, he was surrounded by the fragrance and extravagance of the flower. Cleopatra had the banquet tables scattered with roses, the floors covered 18 inches deep in petals, the couches lined with rose-filled mattresses, and rose-filled net bags were used as cushions for the two lovers.
 According to Greek mythological legend, Chloris, the goddess of flowers, desired to create a new flower surpassing all others in charm and beauty after discovering the lifeless body of a beautiful nymph in the forest. With the deities Aphrodite, Zephyrus, Apollo and Dionysius they created the new flower. With a diadem of dewdrops, Chloris then crowned the rose as the queen of all flowers.

Copyright © 1996 Charles M. Pickett, All rights reserved.