The classic woody flowering shrub of gardens worldwide, celebrated for layered blooms in nearly every color and a perfume that has shaped trade, poetry, and perfumery.
Where it grows
Modern garden roses are hybrids descended from species native across the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Cultivated forms now thrive on every continent except Antarctica, in conditions ranging from cool English borders to dry Mediterranean hillsides, provided they receive at least six hours of direct sun and well-drained soil.
How to recognise it
Roses are prickly, woody-stemmed shrubs with pinnate leaves of usually five to seven toothed leaflets and a stipule clasping the stem. The flowers carry five sepals and, in wild forms, five petals; cultivated doubles can pack hundreds of petals into a single cupped or rosette bloom. After flowering, swollen red or orange hips persist into winter.
Garden & cultural uses
Roses underpin a global cut-flower industry centred on Kenya, Ecuador, and the Netherlands, and a parallel perfume trade running from Bulgaria’s Valley of Roses to Grasse in France. In cooking, petals flavor Persian sweets, Turkish lokum, and rose-water syrups.
In symbolism
The rose stands for love in Western tradition, devotion in Islamic poetry, and resurrection in Christian iconography. England’s Tudor rose merged the white York and red Lancaster blooms after the Wars of the Roses.
Find more flowers by letter
Rose starts with R and ends with E. Browse other flowers along the same letter.
Flowers that contain a letter from "Rose":