Who Buried Sarah by Eden Monroe

 

https://bookswelove.net/authors/canadian-historical-mysteries/

Sarah Estey was a young bride-to-be who loved life … and roses, so how ironic is it she was found buried in a rose garden? How she got there is the question answered in the Canadian Historical Mystery, Who Buried Sarah?

Roses were front of mind during the writing of this book, so my curiosity piqued, I decided to keep digging even after the project was finished.

I wasn’t surprised to learn that the rose is the flower of preference for most people, perennially admired for its delicate petals and beautiful fragrance. But the rose is no shrinking violet as it were, either, properly armed for adversity with a sharp, thorny stem. For some people roses are a preoccupation, a passion, and for most of us, a fascination. That includes myself, so it was a most enjoyable task to take a closer look.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet….” said William Shakespeare in his tragedy, Romeo & Juliet.

In praise of roses, some form of the name rose remains a popular choice for both male and female. That includes a few we’re more familiar with, such as Rosa, Rosario, Rosie, Rosalba, Rosalie, Rosalia, Rosina, Rosaria and Rosalina. Male names inspired by the world’s number one flower are: Raslio, Roseo, Ambrose, Penrose, Anthony and Rhodes … among others.

The rose is also well represented geographically. There are actually sixteen places in the world called Rose, with the United States being home to eight of them, and countless others incorporating rose in one way or another. From Camrose, Alberta to Rosevale, New Brunswick, the possibilities are endless.

Perhaps the rose is so sought after because it’s long been associated with love, and in that regard each of the more traditional colours carries its own meaning (with variations): White: innocence and purity, Coral: desire, Yellow: love between friends, Peach: modesty and appreciation, Lavender: love at first sight, Red, and perhaps the king of all roses: passionate love.

 

Roses won our hearts a long time ago. According to Better Homes and Gardens (bhg.com), archaeologists have found rose fossils dating back as far as thirty-five million years. Also, on a wall on Germany’s Hildesheim Cathedral grows the oldest living rose, producing blossoms for an astonishing 1,000 years.

Something else to love about roses, besides their beauty, is that their petals are edible. Whether used in jellies or jams, as flavouring in Indian and Chinese dishes, the making of rose water or a cup of rosehip tea from the rose’s berry-like fruit (rich in vitamin C), the rose is no one-trick pony.

And aside from its gorgeous velvety texture, most roses are blessed with a heavenly scent from its pallet of fragrances. Says venusetfleur.com:  “Broadly speaking, there are five main rose fragrances: Old or Traditional Rose (also known as Damask), Tea, Myrrh, Fruit, and Musk, although there are variations within all of the categories. The fragrance is also susceptible to change depending on the weather, time of day, season, and even just from year to year.”

To help capture that essence, rose oil has been used for centuries in the making of perfume. Rose oil is costly because to achieve even one tiny little gram of oil requires 2,000 roses. According to Kannauj Attar, the types of roses used to make rose essential oil (attar), widely used in aromatherapy or perfumery, are: Pink Damask Rose, Rose de Mai (Rose of May), Rosa Rugosa (Beach Rose), Rosa Alba (White Rose), Rosa Bourboniana (Indian Rose).

Roses enjoy a universal infatuation, with no end of celebration. In fact the rose is the national flower emblem of the United States, so honoured in 1986 when President Ronald Regan made that announcement while standing in the White House Rose Garden.

The rose is also the national flower of the Maldives, an archipelagic country in the Indian Ocean, as well as for Slovakia, Luxembourg and The Czech Republic. The Rose of Sharon is South Korea’s national flower and the Tudor Rose holds that distinction for England, adopted as such by Henry VII as a symbol of peace following the War of the Roses.

The rose is also the state flower of Georgia, Iowa, New York, North Dakota and Washington. In Canada the wild rose is Alberta’s provincial flower.

Many fine rose gardens have been established throughout the world in homage to this magnificent creation of nature, including Sangerhausen on the mountain slopes of Südharz, Germany, home to what is considered the largest collection of roses on the planet. There’s also the Zakir Hussain Rose Garden in Chandigarh, India with 50,000 rosebushes representing 1600 varieties spread over 30 acres. The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden located in New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, NYC is considered to be one of the best rose gardens in the world, and for what is recognized by Atlas Obscura as the largest backyard rose bush on earth (Lady Banksia Rose planted in 1885) we must travel to Tombstone, Arizona. Tyler, Texas is saluted as the Rose Capital of America (Rose City) and that same distinction has been accorded to Windsor, Ontario, Canada’s City of Roses. Actually, several US cities are referred to as the City of Roses.

The rose long ago captured the imagination of breeders, such as accomplished British writer and rose breeder David C. H. Austin OBE. The late Mr. Austin spent fifteen years and nearly $5 Million Dollars breeding a rare rose variety says bhg.com, and called the spectacular result, the Juliet. In 2000 the Juliet rose sold for a staggering $15.8 Million, making it the world’s most expensive rose cultivar – and according to travel.earth it is the rarest rose in the world. Mr. Austin’s list of successful rose cultivars is lengthy and distinguished, as is his extensive tally of gold medal winners.

The blue rose is also considered to be rare (a-z-animals.com). The black rose is unusual, although according to venusetfleur.com, fresh-cut black roses aren’t truly black but rather derive their colour from intense shades of purple and red.

Given the unwavering demand for roses, the growing of them is big business, and while we may tease a few beauties from our backyard gardens, when it comes to sheer volume, commercial rose growers win the day. Five countries top the list in the cut-flower industry, ($100 billion globally says global news.ca) according to doseofroses.com:

Number one is the Netherlands, a country that produces more than half of the world’s flowers, annually exporting about $3 Billion worth of tulips, lilies and roses.

The second is Ecuador where what are considered to be the world’s biggest and brightest roses are grown, blooms recognized in the industry as having the most staying power.

Third is Colombia, its range of climates and ecosystems creating ideal growing conditions for carnations, orchids and roses. That makes for more than $1 Billion worth of cut-flower exports every year.

Beautiful Kenya in East Africa comes in at number four, growing carnations, alstromeria and of course, roses.

Lastly and certainly not least is a recent addition to the major players in cut-floral production – Ethiopia. Sitting squarely on the horn of Africa and that continent’s 10^th largest country, Ethiopia’s tropical climate is ideal for growing flowers – including roses.

Now to put that in dollar terms for the world’s most popular flower, The Observancy of Economic Complexity breaks down the international rose race as follows: Netherlands ($1.12B), Ecuador ($700M), Kenya ($630M), Colombia ($410M) and Ethiopia ($167M).

The top importers of roses (2021): US: ($645M), Netherlands ($536M),

Germany ($413M), United Kingdom ($249M), France ($186M).

The rose segment dominated the cut flower industry in 2022 and will likely continue to do so, because it’s estimated that more than 250 million roses are produced every year for Valentine’s Day alone, says the Society of American Florists. Not surprisingly, the majority of those consumers were men.

 

It’s interesting to note in terms of geographic adaptability, that most species of roses are actually native to Asia, says Britannica.com, “with smaller numbers being native to North America and a few to Europe and northwest Africa. Roses from different regions of the world hybridize readily, giving rise to types that overlap the parental forms, and making it difficult to determine basic species.”

Wherever they originate, our love affair with roses is not likely to wane any time soon. They really are all about love … and so much more. Again, William Shakespeare (with John Fletcher) in their Jacobean tragicomedy The Two Noble Kinsmen: “Of all flowers, methinks a rose is best.”