Roses are more popular than ever, but what do they mean?
This beauty is the Love and Peace rose, a moderately fragrant hybrid tea. Debbie Arrington
Happy Valentine’s Day! This is not only a date to celebrate romance but a good time to talk roses.
More than 250 million roses were produced for this Valentine’s Day, says the Society of American Florists. Those bouquets represent the bulk of an estimated $2.6 billion that Americans will spend on Valentine flowers this year, says the National Retail Federation.
Roses are by far the most popular gift flower year round, and their demand continues to grow. In 1989, Americans bought an estimated 1 billion roses over the course of the entire year (with Valentine’s Day being the peak period for rose sales). In 2023, U.S. rose sales hit 2.8 billion stems – enough for every adult American to get one 10-rose bouquet (plus a lot left over).
Why roses? According to florists, roses carry a lot of extra meaning, especially as a symbol of love.
That emotion has many shades, with different rose colors evoking various meanings. According to online florist BloomsyBox, roses hint at these qualities:
*White roses: Innocence and purity.
* Pink roses: Romance and happiness.
* Coral roses: Desire.
* Yellow roses: Love between friends.
* Peach roses: Modesty and appreciation.
* Lavender roses: Love at first sight.
* Red roses: Passionate love.
Most of those meanings were well known to Victorians, who used flowers to send coded messages.
In 1884, Kate Greenaway, a wildly popular illustrator of Victorian children’s books, created her illustrated “Language of Flowers” with hundreds of referenced blooms. Greenaway included 34 meanings just for roses (including those above), depending on their variety, color and form.
As for “love,” there are dozens of possible bouquet candidates (including fillers as well as flowers), depending on the intensity of that affection. Among them: Yellow acacia (“secret love”), ambrosia (“love returned”), red mum (“I love you”), yellow mum (“slighted love”), purple lilac (“first emotions of love”), lotus (“estranged love”), magnolia (“love of nature”), moss (“maternal love”), pear blossoms (“affection”) and pink carnations (“a woman’s love”).
As for adding a little rose love to your garden, February is a wonderful time to plant new bushes. The names of more than 15 varieties start with the word “Love,” “Love’s” or “Loving.” That includes the red grandiflora ‘Love’ as well as the hybrid teas ‘Love and Peace,’ ‘Love at First Sight,’ ‘Love Me Tender’ and ‘Loving Memory.’
For more on roses: https://www.rose.org/
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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