The Rose: Roses have a long and colourful history, stepped in mystery and culture. Praised by poets and the world’s greatest writers including Shakespeare himself, the rose is over 35 million years old. With over 30,000 different varieties of rose available today, it is not surprising that this is one of the world’s favourite flowers.

Adrian Zammit from the firm that specialise in flowers to MALTA, said, “According to Greek mythology, the rose got its name from Aphrodite the goddess of flowers, but they is much scepticism behind this belief. Later on in life, roses became associated with the peasants of the Roman Empire when the less fortunate members of society began growing roses instead of crops as the emperors would fill their bathtubs with the petals and used them at festivals and banquets as a mark of grandeur.”

Cultivated roses were introduced into Europe during the late eighteenth century, many of which came from China. From this moment on roses were placed into two different groups- old roses (cultivated before 1800) and modern roses which were grown in England and France at the beginning of the 19th century.

Today roses have a variety of meanings depending on their colour.

• The pink rose represents ‘Perfect Happiness’
• The red rose represents ‘Love’
• The white rose represents ‘Purity and Innocence’
• The yellow rose represents a ‘Decrease in love or Jealousy’