Roses are grown and loved the world over by professional landscape architects, as well as amateur gardners.
Roses date back to forty million years.
The ancient roses that we still find today have simple flowers with single petals and very many thorns.
Roses are divided into two categories. old roses and new or modern roses.
The old roses bloom once a year, and tend to be very fragrant.
A thousand years ago the Chinese painted their silks with old rose designs.
The Romans used rose petals to carpet their floors.
Persians grew roses for decoration, and the Muslims cherished the yellow rose, which was unknown in Europe until the 10th Century.
At the end of the 18th Century four roses were introduced into Europe from China. Modern roses were cultivated after 1867.
In the 19th Century, the Empress Josephine established her famous rose garden in France, at Malmaison. She cross bread her roses,
and cross breeding of roses became an art the world over.
Most modern roses bloom all summer and many are much hardier than the old roses.
Roses today come in many colors: Pink, white, orange, yellow, blue and the unrivalled seduction of the red ,red rose.
There are miniature roses, hybrid tea roses, grandifloras, floribundas, climbers, ramblers, bushes and tree roses.
I will post a few pictures in the next few replies.
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~~~BARBARA 
