10 things you didn’t know about roses

 

Dress: Zara

Shoes: Steve Madden

Purse and necklace: vintage

Earrings: C&A

 

From the “I found this on Pinterest” series, there’s a saying that goes something like this: flowers don’t compete with other flowers, they just bloom.

The quote itself can mean a lot of different things, complex and debatable things, but that’s not what I’m here for today. My plan is much simpler and much more fragrant. And if I were to go back to where I started, flowers may not be competing with other flowers, but as far as I’m concerned, there’s a close battle between peonies and roses. I like peonies because they’re chubby, delicate and deliciously pink, and roses fascinate me with their scent. Most of my perfumes have rose notes in them (Velvet Rose & Oud from Jo Malone, Sí Rose Signature from Giorgio Armani or even Rare Pearls from Avon, the latter reminding me of my mother who wears this fragrance for over 10 years). I don’t shy away from roses when it comes to food either. Whether it’s my grandma’s jam, turkish delight or even the bougie deliciousness from Laduree, I’m always down to eat (I even ask for seconds) anything contains even the slightest hint of rose.

There are around 100 species of roses (I’m not familiar with them, so I won’t go into details), but I think that I saw at least 4 or 5 types at the Bucharest Botanical Gardens, where I took these pictures. As with the magnolia I was telling you about in this post here, I had to wait a whole year for these roses to bloom. Last year I was too late and they were already whittered, but this year… This year we nailed it! One chilly morning with slight goosebumps and a fabulous dress, almost as diaphanous as the roses, we proceeded to capturing what I think is my favourite photo companion: flowers. Whether it’s magnolia, peonies, poppies, sunflower or even roses, I always prefer flowers as photo background/location. Everything is prettier with flowers around you and I think they’re  in my top 3 “making this photo bomb AF” props.

Back to roses though, I did some research and found out some pretty interesting stuff that I want to share with you below:

  1. According to the Guinness World Records book, roses are the oldest species of plants grown with decorative purpose. The romans (aka Ancient Rome and Russell Crowe in the Gladiator type of Rome) used them to decorate buildings and furniture, and even used them to create mats out of the petals.
  2. The world’s oldest living rose (bush?) is believed to be 1,000 years old. It grows on the wall of the Cathedral of Hildesheim in Germany.  According to the legend, the rosebush symbolizes the prosperity of the city of Hildesheim; as long as it flourishes, Hildesheim will not decline. In 1945 allied bombers destroyed the cathedral, yet the bush survived.
  3. Different coloured roses are used to convey different messages. For instance,  red roses are used to show the love, pink – grace, yellow roses suggest infidelity, and the peach roses show modesty.  Although roses can come in a wide variety of colours, black or blue roses do not grow naturally. There is a turkish breed of “black rose” (called The Turkish Black Rose) which is not actually black, it is a very dark burgundy.
  4. The rose is one among the only three flowers mentioned in the Bible. The others are lilies and camphire (henna).
  5. In 1986, the rose became the official flower emblem of the United States of America.
  6. Every year on Valentine’s Day, the production of roses reaches a whopping 100 million pieces.
  7. As I said above, roses are as edible as it gets. The petals are used to make jams, and rose water is used in the production of turkish delight, baklava, nougat and other fabulous sweets.
  8. The ladies from the flowers shops on the corner know very well how luxurious roses are (hence the exorbitant prices), but before them and Instagram, in the middle ages, rose petals and rose oils were added to the baths of the rich and famous.  #opulenceihasit
  9. Not only do we have dinosaur fossils, we also have rose fossils. The oldest fossil on record is allegedly 35 million years old and was discovered in Colorado, USA. (now that’s what I call vintage!)
  10. The most expensive rose in the world (no, it’s not from corner flower shop – although close enough) is called Juliet and was sold in 2006 for $15,8 million.

What a bargain!

And that’s all, folks.

Now. Look closely at picture #3. Does it smell like $15,8 million?


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