June Birth Flowers: Rose and Honeysuckle
Rose
Meaning: Each color of the rose has its own meaning, but overall, the rose is associated with love, devotion, and passion. It has been the symbol of love for thousands of years. But here are a few general meanings of the different color roses.
· Red: passion, love (a single red rose is an even more powerful statement of passion than a bouquet of them.)
· Pink: perfect happiness, affection
· White: purity and innocence
· Yellow: friendship OR jealousy, (as of a lover lost to another)
Name Origin: The rose has been coined as “the queen of flowers,” and is one of the most popular flowers across the globe. Though I don’t quite understand the rose’s first name origin, (it is said to originate from a Germanic source, ‘Hrodohaidis’, meaning ‘famous type’) the name for the rose as we know it today is derived from the Latin word ‘rosa,’ which is thought to mean ‘fragrant flower.’
History: Roses have a strong Middle Eastern origin. They were extensively used in perfumes and medicines, and the petals have long been used as confetti at celebrations throughout the ancient world. It is said that Cleopatra loved the flower so much she wanted her subjects to associate her with the scent of roses so she took them with her wherever she went, and even filled her bed with rose petals on her wedding night. Petrified rose wreaths have been found in Egyptian tombs. The rose has been cultivated for millennia, and fossil evidence indicates that the rose was one of the first flowers to bloom on the earth. (Fun fact: the oldest fossil found was discovered in Colorado!) Empress Josephine Bonaparte had such a fascination with roses that she imported over 200 species of them for her garden at Chateau Malmaison. Her contemporary, the famous botanical illustrator Pierre-Joseph Redoute, painted and categorized 117 of them in his famous compilation Les Roses. In World War II roses were grown in Victory Gardens to utilize the Rose hips, which acted like vitamin C for the immune system. And unsurprisingly, the rose was the symbol for Aphrodite and Venus – goddesses of erotic desire and beauty in both Greek and Roman mythology.
The rose has inspired so much poetry, literature, and ceremonial practices all over the world for thousands of years that it is impossible to relay it all here. But roses have had a long history of lore and legend in Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean long before they reached Western Europe and North America. Even Africa has a long history with the rose. As the ‘queen of all flowers,” her reign has certainly had an extensive reach!
Fun Facts:
· The ancient Greek term for the rose was Rhoda, so if you know anyone named Rhoda, her name actually means ‘rose.’
· Today’s rose comes in many forms as well as colors; wild roses, spray roses, garden roses, tea roses, hybrid roses, long stem roses, and climbing roses.
· Our roses today have been bred and expanded into so many species that their luscious scent is actually not as strong or as beautiful as the old-world roses. Sad fact!
· The rose is the flower for the 15th wedding anniversary!
· Occasionally you may come across a bunch of blue roses in a grocery store bouquet. But if you’re looking for authenticity, there is no such thing as a blue rose; the roses in question are actually color-dyed.
· One old species of the rose had 100 petals in each bloom! I don’t know if it’s still in existence today. (I hope so!)
There is so much literature and poetry surrounding the rose, and I can’t help myself, so I will give you a few examples:
The first is a famous poem you’ve probably heard called A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns:
My love is like a red, red rose/ that’s newly sprung in June…/so fair art thou, my bonnie lass,/ so deep in love am I;/and I will love thee still, my dear/ till all the sea’s gone dry….
The second is by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, called Song of the Rose. She wrote another called A Dead Rose which I like better but it is too long to quote here.
If Zeus chose us a King of the flowers in his mirth,
He would call to the rose and would royally crown it,
For the rose, ho the rose! is the grace of the earth,
Is the light of the plants that are growing upon it.
For the rose, ho the rose! is the eye of the flowers,
Is the blush of the meadows that feel themselves fair—
Is the lightning of beauty that strikes through the bowers
On fair lovers who sit in the glow unaware.
Ho, the rose breathes of love! Ho the rose lifts the cup
To the red lips of Cypris invoked for a guest!
Ho, the rose, having curled its sweet eaves for the world
Takes delight in the motion its petals keep up
As they laugh to the wind as it laughs from the west.
And lastly, The Rose by Christina Rosetti:
The lily has a smooth stalk,
Will never hurt your hand;
But the rose upon her brier
Is lady of the land.
There's sweetness in an apple tree,
And profit in the corn;
But lady of all beauty
Is a rose upon a thorn.
When with moss and honey
She tips her bending brier,
And half unfolds her glowing heart,
She sets the world on fire.
Honeysuckle
Meaning: The honeysuckle represents perfect happiness and deep-seated affection. It can also symbolize everlasting love, (which kind of makes it a perfect birth flower to pair with its sister birth flower, the red rose!)
Name Origin: Its name is simply derived from the edible sweet nectar inside the blossom. It tastes a bit like honey! (I once had a honeysuckle Moscato and it was absolutely divine!)
Japanese Honeysuckle
History: Honeysuckle is native to Japan and was brought to America in 1806 both for its loveliness, and its ability to prevent soil erosion. It worked so well that after a while, its cultivators found that it needed to be pruned because it began running wild over fields and hedges. In Europe and Asia, honeysuckle was used for medicinal purposes because of its anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. It was applied to snake bites, skin lesions, and ingested for arthritis, respiratory infections and dysentery. In the Greek novel, Daphnis and Chloe, the hero and heroine are lovers who are only allowed to see each other when the honeysuckle blooms. So Daphnis begged Eros, the god of love (child of Aphrodite and Ares) to extend the blooming period of the honeysuckle, which is why, according to legend, the honeysuckle blooms for the whole summer (and then some)!
Fun Facts:
· Honeysuckle attracts butterflies and hummingbirds!
· The honeysuckle comes in several different forms: the climbing vines and the shrubs.
· There are various colors of the honeysuckle (and I used to think the bloom was only found in white!), but honeysuckle comes in pinks, reds, whites and yellows.
· In the old Disney animated film, “Winnie the Pooh,” the little bear, Pooh, loves honey so much that he tries to eat a bouquet of honeysuckle flowers gifted to him by his friend, Roo.
· In Scotland, farmers used to grow honeysuckle vines up the sides of barns to prevent their cattle from being bewitched.
· I couldn’t decide whether to put this in the honeysuckle or the rose section, but here is a funny fact: there was a movie made in 1980 with Willie Nelson about a man who had to choose between two women he loved. (Never seen it.) The movie is called, simply, “Honeysuckle Rose.” Can’t stop laughing about its title.
