The Rose - Queen of Flowers

How long has this beautiful bloom been Queen?

Greece
In Ancient Greece, (c. 600 BC) Sappho of Lesbos wrote:

"If Jove would give the leafy bowers
A queen for all their world of flowers,
The rose would be the choice of Jove,
And blush the queen of every grove."

The Song of the Wild Rose Fairy

I am the queen whom everybody knows;
I am the English Rose;
As light and free as any Jenny Wren,
As dear to Englishmen;
As joyous as a Robin Redbreast's tune,
I scent the air of June;
My buds are rosy as a baby's cheek;
I have one work to speak,
One word which is my secret and my song,
'Tis "England, England, England" all day long.

Cicely Mary Barker, Flower Fairies of the Summer

Rome
The Ancient Romans loved roses - I mean, one emperor literally showered his guests with rose petals tumbling from the ceiling when they arrived ... and rose petals were scattered everywhere else for, well, you know, ambience ... they filled their swimming baths with rose petals, fountains with rose-water and sat on carpets of rose petals.  So excessive was their desire for rose petals that the peasants had to grow roses, instead of food, in order to satisfy the demand!

A heavenly image arises for me at the thought of surrounding Roman countryside, and indeed every nook and cranny in Rome, filled with blooming roses - the scent, the sight of roses, roses, roses everywhere and all destined to arrive at the palaces and temples!  It must have been an amazing sight - of course, the plebs might not have been able to see it that way ... if they went hungry as a result!  Hopefully, they managed to sneak in a few rose petal salads for themselves .... rich in Vitamin C you know.

England
In front of cottages or row-homes, adorning doorways and walkways, lining stone walls down country lanes, climbing arbors and arches ... and of course, in many an ornamental rose garden at carefully preserved "stately homes"; the rose is England's national flower. 

Queen Elizabeth I was known as the "rose without a thorn" by poets of the era.  She took the Tudor Rose as her emblem and "Rosa sine spina" as her motto.  Today, a wholesome English young woman is lovingly referred to as an "English Rose". 
                                                                                                                                                                                          Meadow Sweet Grove © V. Buchanan 2018 / edited 2019