Pictures of Roses

Roses are probably the world's most popular flower, which is not surprising because they come in fantastic range of color, shapes and forms and most of the time a lot of them have beautiful fragrance.

Over the years roses become favourite gifts for Mother's day, Valentine's day, birthdays and anniversaries especially the long stemmed variety. Roses also has become a perfect combination with a box of chocolates, a timeless symbol for love and affection.

If one of the reason why you don't want to put roses in your garden, is the sharp thorns, which is found in every rose, there are now "thornless roses" which has been developed by an American rose breeder, Harvey Davidson in 1961, he developed new thornless roses through both inbreeding and outcrossing of his roses.

I like roses very much, it is said that the more flowers you pick and the more you trimmed the roses, there will be lots of flowers for picking, I also enjoy taking photos of roses. Here are some photos for you to enjoy.

• In Ancient Greek mythology, when Venus' son Cupid was stung by a bee he accidentally shot arrows into a rose garden. It was believed to be the sting of the arrows that caused the roses to grow thorns. When Venus walked through the garden and pricked her foot on a thorn, it was the droplets of her blood which turned the roses red.

• A wild rose tree grows in the church courtyard of the Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany, 15 meters tall, it is believed to be the oldest wild rose tree in the world. Check it out!

• The month of June is National Rose Month
• The rose is the official National Floral Emblem of the United States.

• According to legend, the 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' rose was given to Napoleon by the Empress Josephine to bring him ack safely from war. it was claimed to resemble Napoleon's hat and was also carried by French soldiers in the Battle of Waterloo to protect them. The 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' is named after Josephine's garden in Malmaison near Paris.