A Brief History of Roses

The first recorded mention of roses dates back 35 million years ago around 3000 B.C. by the Sumerians in what is now the country of Iraq. The rose was referred to as the queen of flowers for centuries and still is today. Sappho idealized the rose in her 600 B.C. poem “Song of the Rose.” European colonists brought the rose North America in the 16th century thus making the rose the longest European plant cultivated in North America. The Empress Josephine was so fond of roses that she collected and displayed all the known rose varieties (250) at her Malmaison palace.

The “Modern” rose hybrids were first introduced in 1867. The most popular rose today remains the “Peace” rose which was orginally smuggled in 1945 into the United States from France.