The rose is the most ravishingly beautiful and fragrant of flowers. Genus Rosa has flourished on this earth for some 40 million years and has served our physical and spiritual needs for millennia. Perhaps that is why today (May 9), the RHS announced a new rose named after HRH The Princess of Wales. The proceeds raised from 'Catherine's Rose', grown by Harkness Roses, will support The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity — which is where the Royal Family member received treatment during her own battle with the disease.
The rose's exquisitely delicate petals and savage prickles (commonly described as thorns) comprise a conjunction of opposites that, for centuries, has inspired writers, artists and designers who have drawn allusions to love, beauty, sexuality, sin, degradation and death. No flower is more entwined with myth, religion and other stories; cultural production and politics; nor more likened to the human — mostly female — body and emotions. Phaidon’s visually stunning new publication The Rose Book interrogates and rejoices our near-universal relationship with this flower of flowers.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema's 1888 'The Roses of Heliogabalus'.
In the second century the rose was personified as female and crowned queen of the flowers by the Greek writer Achilles Tatius in his romantic prose Leucippe and Clitophon. Despite being the most regal of flowers, the rose is also the most common. The shrub has such a broad geographic sweep — permitting so many to enjoy it — because it is resilient, promiscuous, and rambunctious. Whilst recognising the flowers’ Asian origins and global contexts, it is the British who have claimed the rose as their own (we describe delicate-looking young women as ‘English roses’).
It was from the 1870s that the British took the lead from France in growing cultivated roses. World-leading family firm David Austin (est. 1962; based in Shropshire), no doubt familiar to readers, now offer more than 200 gorgeous ‘English rose’ varieties to local and international growers. Imagine reviving the mid-1880s vogue for rose-themed garden parties, timed at the break of day or during moonlight when the flowers are at their most fulsome and fragrant. In 1884, the Vanderbilt’s — once the wealthiest family in the US — ordered 50,000 cut roses for their New York house-warming party, to which they welcomed 1,000 guests. Even today, wearing a single fresh rose marks an occasion out as ‘special’.
In the 21st century we have seen a renaissance in roses and not only within naturalistic settings. In 2021, NEXT Architects designed a modernistic metal building to house Beijing’s new Rose Museum — imagine, a whole museum dedicated to one flower (above). And, once again, the rose has become highly politicised. In the past, there’s Britain’s War of the Roses and Germany’s anti-Nazi youth movement — which employed a white rose as their symbol of choice. In the present, the bloom has been harnessed to draw attention to vital issues such as racial equality, identity, sexuality, female genital mutilation, fair trade, sustainability and the environment.
An evening dress of rose-printed shantung by Christian Dior
My own special interest lies in the myriad ways in which the rose has inspired fashion, textiles, folk costume; everyday, sub-cultural and fancy dress, jewellery, body art and grooming. In Ancient Rome, a culture renowned for its extreme adoration of roses, it was men who wore perfume made from roses (women preferred more pungent scents). In the 18th century, the western male elite wore the most magnificent flower-embroidered garments and accessories. It was not until the mid-19th century that roses became synonymous with female fashion.
Roses are a fashion mainstay. It is couture designers Charles Frederick Worth, Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen — the latter dressing a male, female and gender-neutral clientele in extraordinary rose-inspired garments — whom I crown as fashion’s greatest rosarians.
Today, year-round, the world’s wealthiest consumers purchase roses grown by the world’s poorest workers. Standard, long-stemmed and budded roses that have little fragrance and drain local water resources — all before being flown round the world. They are not beautiful and they are certainly not romantic. Happily, there is a shift afoot, spearheaded by florists such as Shane Connolly — who was employed by TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales for their wedding — who are urging us to buy roses that are grown locally and in season. Roses that are truly ravishing.
Natasja Sadi's 2023 'Arrangement'
'Catherine's Rose' is available to pre-order now. Delivery of the bare root plants is scheduled for Autumn 2025
The Rose Book (£34.94) is published by Phaidon on April 3.
-
'These aren't just rooms. They are spaces configured with enormous cunning, artfully combining beauty with funcionality': Giles Kime on the wonders of WOW!house 2025WOW!house 2025 is here. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to explore more than 20 indoor and outdoor spaces, dreamt up by the biggest names in design, says Giles Kime.
-
'The very best North Yorkshire has to offer': The £25 million Kirkham EstateWith 1,103 acres and on the market for the first time in a century, we've got a new frontrunner for the sale of the year.
-
Wakehurst: 500 years of history, 2.4 billion seeds, 500 acres of planting, and scientists who might just save us allCharles Quest-Ritson takes a look at the amazing work that's been done to update Wakehurst, Kew's trailblazing outpost in Sussex.
-
A dozen slices of al fresco inspiration from the best designers in BritainAmelia Thorpe shares her pick of the most beautiful outdoor furniture and accessories to help you make the most of summer.
-
'Victorian magnificence skilfully simplified and distilled': A peek at the restoration of Somerleyton Hall gardensRecent works have retained the former theatrical splendours of these gardens near Lowestoft, Suffolk, finds Tilly Ware.
-
Alan Titchmarsh: I've tried every slug control known to man, and these are the only things that have ever worked for meAlan Titchmarsh is as charming, warming and friendly a man as anyone you'll ever meet. Unless, of course, you're a slug... in which case you'll awaken his ruthless side.
-
One of the most spectacular rose gardens in England has come in to bloom two weeks earlyIt's time to head to Mottisfont — come for the roses, stay for the fascinating exhibition shedding new light on the history of this beautiful Hampshire house.
-
The first new botanical gardens to be created in the UK in almost 200 years is celebrating its 25th birthdayThe National Botanic Garden of Wales helped put Carmarthenshire on the map and its Great Glasshouse, designed by modernist architect Sir Norman Foster, was once the largest single-span glasshouse in the world.
-
Chelsea Flower Show 2025: Take a peek behind-the-scenes of the Country Life standDiscover how interior designer Isabella Worsley and landscape designer Hugo Elwes brought the Country Life Chelsea Flower Show stand to life.
-
'The few days on the show ground are exhilarating, but it’s the garden’s legacy that truly excites us': What happens to the gardens after Chelsea Flower ShowRHS Chelsea is now only a stop along the way, before the gardens end up somewhere where the trees, the structures and the idea have a further life.
