WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Roses Through Time 0:00:02.360 --> 0:00:06.000 Happy Saturday. We have just gotten through the winter solstice 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:09.840 here in the Northern Hemisphere, so this Saturday's Classic is 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:13.280 meant to bring a little light and springtime into everyone's 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.119 feeds during these darkest days of the year. It's a 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.400 look at the history of roses. This episode originally came 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:28.720 out on June Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:38.320 a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.559 the podcast. I'm Holly Frying and I'm Tracy B. Wilson. 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.000 We're doing an episode that is, uh, you know, selfish 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:48.479 because something I wanted to talk about for a long time, 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.239 which is roses. Uh, because I love roses, but I 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.480 am admittedly a total amateur in the garden. Our house 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.440 when we bought it, came with a lot of roses, 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.440 some of which are entertainingly. They have revealed themselves to 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.560 me to be poorly chosen for the spots there is whoops, 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:09.160 but like they're lovely. We have the most beautiful red 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.440 roses that bloom like crazy every spring and summer and 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.600 right into fall, that are right next to the steps 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:19.080 on either side of the railings. But they're climbing roses, 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:21.800 and so in the summer. We literally have to cut 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.399 them back almost every day because they just keep coming 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.760 into the walkway. And it's like, these are so beautiful 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:29.760 and they're so hearty and healthy, and I really love them, 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.840 but whoever picked them maybe didn't realize what kind they were. Um, 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:38.000 and then I add to our little collection periodically. I'm 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.000 I'm a lady who does not know that much about 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:41.920 my roses, but I love them dearly. I've bought a 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.840 few of the the fun hybrids of late in the 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.200 past few years. So but I also had to wait 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.360 until now all of this is saying to do this 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.600 episode one. June is a very prolific time for roses, 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.559 so it's kind of thematically right. But um, I knew 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.279 that if we did this episode two early in the spring, 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:00.920 that I would be tempted to a lot more roses 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:02.840 as a consequence, and I'm already kind of out of 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.680 space for places to put them. So I had to 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:07.960 wait until we were at the point when growers and 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:10.520 nurseries won't ship to us anymore because we're out of 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.600 the planting season. So you're getting this in late June 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.679 so that I can manage my own online shopping problems. 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:25.680 That seems legitimate the history of roses. I conversely have 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:27.600 an episode that I've been wanting to do for a 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:34.440 while that has just been painful to work on and 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.080 I still have not finished it and it's been weeks. 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.960 So we'll surprise everyone with which episodes those are slash, 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.400 that is, when they come out. Yeah, sometimes Tracy and 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.000 I had to be careful about how we manage our 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.280 own subjects. Uh And just as a caveat, I kind 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.120 of said a similar thing at the beginning of our 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.359 history of Veterinary medicine. This is, you know, definitely an overview. 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.799 A lot has happened in the literal millions of years 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.560 since roses have existed on this planet. Uh. So we 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.080 can't cover every bit of minutia, but we're giving you 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.520 the broad strokes of like the key moments. And on 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.520 that note, In a history of Roses prepared for the 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:18.360 American Rose Society, historian Jerry Haynes wrote, quote, Roses are 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:22.560 incredibly complex, and many rose Arians are opinionated. That makes 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.880 for a which is brew of nonaligned thinking and some 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.840 downright nasty disagreements. You may have heard the saying that 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.320 I went to a fight and a rose meeting broke out. 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.880 This is because there is a lot of room for conjecture, 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:41.040 angry opinions, and wild guesses. This sort of made me 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.320 laugh one because I had never heard that expression, but 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:46.840 it's quite delightful and too. It made me think of 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:53.920 Downton Abbey, where there's some rose drama on the show. 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.520 I actually have a Doubton Abbey rose in my garden now, 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.680 which is named for violet. But this one genus of 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.400 plant is perhaps the most famed in human history. I 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:05.920 would go so far as to say it is, but 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:09.760 I'm always a little bit reticent about superlatives, but it's 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.680 the most famous. It's revered for its beauty, it's used symbolically, 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.400 of course, it's made into consumables. There is a war 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:18.880 named after them. We'll touch on that briefly. And in 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.239 President Ronald Reagan made the rose the national floral emblem 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:27.000 of the United States. But roses predate civilization as we 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.080 know it by a significant margin. Yeah, they've existed for 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.800 literally millions of years, But the image of the rose 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:35.279 that you probably think of doesn't look much like the 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.440 ones blooming in Asia as far back as an estimated 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:42.479 seventy million years ago, or in North America thirty five 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:47.839 million years ago. Ancient wild roses were fairly simple as 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.119 some wild roses still today are, but even more simple 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.560 than that. Many had only five pedals that bloomed into 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.839 sort of a disc like shape. And curiously, roses are 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:02.880 Northern Hemisphere natives. It's not yet understood why they are 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.800 native to more than one continent in the Northern Hemisphere 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:11.200 but not to the Southern Hemisphere. Yeah, I think you 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.279 can probably if you're a very good gardener, transplant sum 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.880 but in terms of naturally growing, they just have never 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.080 sprung up there. The oldest of roses are considered the 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.279 species roses, So these are varieties of roses that developed 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.680 in nature without human intervention. So those ancient ancient ones 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.360 as well as as more recent ones but that are 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:35.520 still uncultivated, and those became the basis of all cultivated roses. 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:37.560 But for a long time they did just find on 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.359 their own. And there are some species rose groups that 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.799 continue to grow today and that you can even purchase, 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.080 as well as some that are just growing in the wild. 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:47.760 And in addition to their simple blooms, they had some 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.880 of the hallmarks of roses, so thorns, sepals, and hips, 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.480 just like your modern roses, but they looked a little different. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.839 Roses have appeared in art and Minoan crete dating back 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:02.520 to se b C, and Egyptian floral reads stated Circle 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:06.760 one seventy CE feature a species of roses actually still 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.479 living today. This is the Rosa ricardi, also known as 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.120 the Rosa sancta, and it's colloquially known as the Holy 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:18.320 rose of Abyssinia. In the fifth century b C. Herodotus 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.599 wrote of a garden in Macedonia that housed roses, but 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.040 what exact kinds of roses were there remains a matter 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:28.159 of guesswork. There are also Biblical references to roses, but similarly, 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:32.200 it's unclear if those references are correctly translated, or if 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:34.680 the flowers in the text were actually something else, and 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.279 then in translation rose kind of got subbed in for 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:41.640 a flowering plant. Humans began cultivating roses starting roughly five 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.160 thousand years ago. The oldest species of rose that continues 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.600 today is the Rosa gallica, which is also called a 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.520 French rose, that dates back to twelve hundred b C 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.560 and has been growing in Asia and parts of Europe 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.880 since that time. Yeah A lot of roses invoke French names, 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.600 just f y I, They're not all the same. The 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.080 damn As grows, known by its Latin name Rosa demascene 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.400 and named for Damascus, is a descendant of that French rose. 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:10.320 It has been around since at least nine variations of 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.160 the Damas grows developed through cross breeding, became common eventually, 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:18.080 and as the Roman Empire came into power, roses really 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:22.160 really benefited. In the eastern parts of the Roman Empire, 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.480 roses became incredibly popular, not just for their beauty, but 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:29.080 for a wide range of other uses. So important was 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.960 the rose and Roman culture that massive public rose gardens 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.960 were established, and of course, fragrant roses were used to 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:40.000 create perfumes. Various parts of the plants were and still 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.800 are commonly used as curatives, and rose petals were used 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.560 in Roman times to create natural confetti, which is sort 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.480 of a lovely image. Throughout the Mediterranean during the Roman Empire, 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.840 rose based products, as well as the plants themselves, were 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.400 bartered among various cultures as they traveled their usual trade routes. 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.920 The first known catalog of roses in the Western world 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.720 was compiled circuit three BC by a Greek scientist and 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:10.440 philosopher name Theophrastus, a student of Aristotle. Theophrastus is sometimes 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.800 called the father of botany for his extensive writing on plants, 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:18.120 and his rose related research provides some of the earliest 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.880 detailed analyzes of their physical composition. And in the first 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.080 century Pliny the Elder wrote about roses. He talked of 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.239 them being manipulated into blooming in the off season, sometimes 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.240 over and over in various locations, because those multi blooms 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:33.800 we're going to talk about later, we're not naturally occurring. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:38.080 As roses have been cultivated by humans, they've also taken 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:43.280 on various symbolic associations, including meanings based on their colors. 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.200 Of course, during the War of the Roses, York was 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.079 represented by white roses and Lancaster by red. The white 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.520 York rose Rosa alba dates back to the second century, 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:57.360 and these roses continue to exist today, flourishing in naturally 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:02.400 colder climates. Yeah, they need a little winter to actually succeed. 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.680 This is a thing about roses that I was completely 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:09.320 misinformed on and understood only much more recently. Like in 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:14.600 my head, roses were much more delicate and required pretty 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:19.960 uh temperate climate. Year round, and then my first springtime 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.160 in Boston and I would walk through our neighborhood and 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:26.600 they would just be these beautiful roses flourishing everywhere. I 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.280 did not know that was possible, and then I felt ignorant. 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:32.199 If you haven't been around him, uh yeah, I mean 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.280 a lot of roses are very very hearty. It's one 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.079 of the reasons they've become so popular globally is that, again, 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.040 if you're living in the northern Hemisphere, they often do 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.840 very well with very very little effort on the part 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.720 of amateur gardeners. Almost anyone can grow rose, and one 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.480 rose in particular that's noted in Europe in the late 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:54.199 fift hundreds is the rosa centifolia and santifolia means one 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.920 hundred leaves, and these flowers are also known as cabbage 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.679 roses because of their round, thickly petaled blooms. At that point, 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.600 leaves is actually probably referring to pebbles. That nomenclature didn't 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.080 really exist, but Plymy and Theophrastus both wrote about roses 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.079 with a hundred leaves, but there was no clear evidence 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.720 of such roses existing until the late sixteenth century. Like 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:16.840 we had these two writings that referenced them, but we 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.480 didn't really have anything that resembled the hundred leaf rose 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.520 until we started seeing them pretty commonly in the sixteenth century. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.160 There is reference to a rose in the book herbal 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:31.079 written by John Garrard, and that describes roses that seemed 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.160 to align with these hundred leaved flowers that were described 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.319 in older writings. It didn't get the nickname cabbage rose 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:40.520 until the seventeen hundreds, though. And coming up, we're going 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.440 to talk about the roses of seventeenth century Europe. But 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:45.200 first we're gonna take a little break so we can 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:56.920 hear from one of our sponsors. Almost a hundred and 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.959 fifty years after the conclusion of the conflict between your 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.800 in Lancaster, Charles, the first of England's royal botanist, wrote 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:08.559 of English white roses in Sine that botanist John Parkinson 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.800 described two kinds of white roses, one thicker and more 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.520 abundant with flowers than the other, although he noted the 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:18.319 differences could be caused by environmental factors, saying quote some 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.280 do judge these to be but one kind. The diversity 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:25.400 happening by the air or ground, or both Parkinson wrote 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:29.640 as well, of a carnation rose, using the Latin rosa incarnata, 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:31.520 and at this point the use of the word carnation 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.839 was associated with basically the scan tone of white people, 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.600 so it's likely that he was writing of a pale, 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.800 pinkish bloom. Throughout the sixteen hundreds, roses went through a 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.600 massive surge in popularity. They were so valued that roses 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.760 and even rose water were sometimes used as currency in Europe, 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.439 and by that time they were also very common as 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:57.000 part of medical treatments. Paradisis terrestris, one of Parkinson's books, 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.280 is the first English book to discuss roses as arden 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:04.160 plants rather than as medicinal plants. Roses had of course 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:06.480 been grown for their beauty before that time, both in 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.360 England and elsewhere, but most writing about them had a 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.079 lot more to do with their practical uses instead of 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.800 their visual appeal. Initially, even roses grown in the garden 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.760 setting weren't really the focal point of any landscape plan. 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.400 They tended to be relegated to the edges, but eventually 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.559 they came into uses hedges and its accents, and then 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.199 slowly kind of moved to be the center of some gardens. 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.360 The writings about roses being used medicinal ng are also 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:35.960 clouded by poor nomenclature and classification. For example, the word 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.200 rose or rosa became so commonly used that it started 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.600 to apply to other plants or flowers that were not 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.880 actually roses. Additionally, the plants were often described with less 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.880 than ideal to tail, for modern readers to figure out 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.600 just what specific plant the writer might have been talking about. 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:55.520 I know I ran into that difficulty when I was 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:59.280 looking for artwork to go with this episode, and I just, Uh, 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:01.960 the farther that I went back in are the more 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:06.520 I was like, I'm not sure that's actually a rose. Yeah, yeah, 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:08.480 there are some that, like I said, they just got 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.720 sub dright in. That's a very pretty cuss of petals 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:16.080 colored rose. Uh. Incidentally, Parkinson was also the first writer 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.520 to describe a native North American rose species being grown 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.000 in Europe, so it had traveled across the Atlantic and back. 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.880 In sixty he wrote Theatrum botanic Um, and he said 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.480 in it quote, the Virginia briar rose hath diverse as 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.120 great stems and branches as any other rose, whose young 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:36.360 are green and the elder grayish set with many small 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.560 prickles and a few great thorns among them. The leaves 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.480 are very green and shining, small and almost round, many 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:46.440 set on a middle rib, one against the other, somewhat 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:50.080 like unto the single yellow rose. The flower stand at 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.120 the tops of the branches, consisting of five small leaves 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.600 or a pale, purple or deep incarnate color like, unto 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.880 those the sweet briar, which fall away quickly, as though 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:04.240 and others do. In the mid sixteen hundreds, herbalist Nicholas 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.840 Culpepper wrote a book titled herbal And which he discussed 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.800 the many health benefits roses had to offer. He wrote, quote, 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.520 the white and red roses are cooling and drying, and 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.240 yet the white is taken to exceed red in both 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.400 the properties, but as seldom used inwardly in any medicine. 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.600 The bitterness and the roses when they are fresh, especially 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:28.480 the juice purges, color and watery humors. But being dried, 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.440 and the heat which caused the bitterness being consumed, they 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:36.320 have then a binding and a stringent quality. Culpepper was 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:40.880 full of ideas about roses medicinal qualities. Uh He suggested 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.600 that an extract made from red roses could be combined 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.640 with wine to treat headaches, ear ache, sore eyes, sore throat, 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.680 or irritated gums. I will confess that part of me 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:51.240 is like, are you maybe just drunk and you don't 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:55.320 feel sick anymore? Um, that's the case with so many 0:14:55.400 --> 0:15:00.000 patent medicines UH. For chest pain, he prescribed a similar 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.560 her formula, still with the roses in it, uh, presumably 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:05.440 to make something more like a poultice or a pace 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:07.600 that you would apply on the area over your heart. 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:10.680 That same compound could be applied to the abdomen for 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.240 belly aches. And he also said that a powder made 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.360 from the yellow strings from the middle of the rose 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.320 quote drank in the distilled water of quinces, stays the 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:23.360 overflowing of women's courses. He really thought, basically that red 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.400 roses were full of uses, and he even stated quote 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:28.920 to write at large of every one of these would 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.800 make my book swell too big, it being sufficient for 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.720 a volume of itself to speak fully of them. But 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.800 just the same, he really did talk a lot about roses, 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:39.760 and specifically red roses, and what you could do with 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.080 them to improve your health in his book and the 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.760 Late seventeenth century, grafting was being used as a way 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:50.000 to manipulate roses. Was common for gardeners to graft roses 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:54.600 onto briars to sculpt blooming plants. Multiple different roses were 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.040 sometimes grafted onto one root stock to create unique and 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:02.360 visually spectacular garden teachers, Yeah, there are some writings where 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:04.960 you'll see them counting the many numbers of different kinds 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:10.080 of roses that are blossoming on a single uh brier. Similarly, 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.440 there was not much in the way of documentation of 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.040 the work that had been done along the Mediterranean and 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.320 then throughout Europe to cross breed and cultivate roses. It 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.640 really wasn't until the nineteenth century that records of the 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.040 work that was being done in greenhouses and gardens in 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.360 relation to the genus Rosa started to be kind of consistent. 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:32.640 The earliest organized breeding program that's fully documented began in Perth, 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:37.360 Scotland in sevente Wild Scotch roses were brought into the 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.400 Dixon and Brown Nursery and one of those plants produced 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.800 flowers with a hint of red in them. From that plant, 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.280 a new one was bred with double flowers, and they 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.600 selectively bred from that and so on until the nursery 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:54.320 had cultivated eight different double roses. And selective breeding had 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.080 most certainly been done before this, including in China and 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:58.600 the Middle East, and we're gonna talk a lot more 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:00.840 about China and the min it, but this marks the 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.640 first time that we know of that careful records of 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:08.200 that process were kept and survive for us to read today. 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.520 And roses from China really changed everything once they were 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.880 introduced to Europe. But this aspect of rose history, like 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:19.280 so many others, is not always clear. For one thing, 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.600 as roses moved along trading routes, they would sometimes be 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.399 attributed not to their place of origin, which was China, 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.040 but to another stop on the trade route, which was India. 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.679 And as corrections were attempted in this record, sometimes that 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.200 just meant the same plant was described as coming from China, India, 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:40.719 and Bengal, depending on whose account you read. Yeah. And 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.240 then like there would be roses that were traded maybe 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:46.680 in India, and they had started in China, but then 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:50.800 they led to different uh cultivations native to India. And 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.720 because a lot of people were creating similar things or 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:56.520 seeing similar plants, but at different points on the curve. 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.280 There are some roses that have multiple different names. Rose 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.639 naming is a very tricky arena with a lot of duplicates, 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.560 and you'll see sometimes the same exact plant given to 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.720 different names, and that's part of why. But in any case, 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.080 while there were some Chinese roast species in Europe by 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.080 the mid eighteenth century, it wasn't until the late seventeen 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.479 hundreds that trade relations were established between Britain and China, 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:25.359 and China's horticultural expertise completely changed the Western world's knowledge 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:29.119 of the possibilities of roses. Chinese gardeners had been working 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.000 with roses for thousands of years at that point, but 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.439 as we said, little record of that work that was 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.800 done to breed them was preserved. While there were a 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:42.120 number of cultivated and wild roses from China introduced into Europe, 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:46.199 four eventually arrived that caused a huge shift in the 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.560 genetic possibilities that were open to cultivators. These are referred 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.879 to as the four stud China's This reminds me of 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.720 like the foundation sires from horse breeding that we talked 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.240 about in the Kentucky Derby episode. It's exactly the same idea, 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:06.080 except what's interesting is that since, like we talk or 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.840 if you read any books about roses in their their 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.760 historical cultivation, they talk about the four stud China's, like, 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.720 you know, with great reverence and import but we don't 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.840 know exactly how those were even developed. So there's it's 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:20.840 kind of funny to me that this whole foundation is 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.760 built on a thing we can't quite identify the lineage 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.199 of the first though of the four stead China's, as 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:29.960 a pink rose called old Blessed China. It also had 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:33.000 an older nickname, which was Parsons Pink China, and it 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.920 was described by one English writer as quote the most 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:40.000 elegant rose and also quote justly considered as one of 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:44.160 the greatest ornaments ever introduced to this country. The second 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.240 of the four stud China's to arrive in Europe was 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:50.920 called Slater's Crimson and was, as you might surmise read, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.800 had large flowers and bloomed year round. It didn't require 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.320 much care, and it was described in Curtis's Botanical Magazine 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.240 has a plant which quote maybe reared almost in a 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:05.199 coffee cup, is kept with the least possible trouble, and 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:09.600 propagated without difficulty. Both it and the parsons pink China 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:11.800 were being grown in European gardens by the end of 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:16.320 the seventeen hundreds. In the early eighteen hundreds, humes blushed 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.320 tea scented China joined the stud China's and it was 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.760 alleged as that name indicates, to have a fragrance of tea, 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:24.960 although there is a bit of debate that goes on 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:27.479 and on as to whether or not that characterization of 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.880 scent is accurate. That rose initially traveled to Europe via 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:34.439 the East India Company, and there are sums that have 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.199 speculated that it may have taken on the scent of 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:39.119 the teas that were imported at the same time, and 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:42.880 that that's what people were smelling and not a pleasant 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.119 odor produced by the bloom. The fourth of the stud 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.680 China's was the Parks of Yellow, which people were extremely 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:52.920 excited about because it was yellow. Yeah, there had been 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:57.919 a lot of effort to cultivate healthy yellow roses for 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.360 quite some time, but it was really tricky to get 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.639 like a really true saturated color with it. So this 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:07.120 like opened up the genetic possibilities in a huge way 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.040 and people were very excited about it. Uh And next 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:12.760 up we're going to talk about how Empress Josephine Bonaparte 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:15.320 helped the cause of roses in Europe. But before we 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:26.040 do list pause, we'll have a little sponsor break. Once 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.960 the four stud China roses were incorporated into breeding programs 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:34.280 in Europe and North America, rose varieties almost literally exploded 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:36.439 in number. Like you just could not keep up with 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.320 all of the cross breeding that people were doing. As 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.159 these exciting new plants were making their collective debut in 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:45.240 the Western world, Napoleon Bonaparte's wife became one of the 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:49.720 roses greatest champions. West of Paris. At her chateau New 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:54.480 mademoisean Empress Josephine Bonaparte had a massive rose garden planted. 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.359 She was so enamored of roses and so dedicated to 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.080 them that she wanted a sample of freek known rose 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:05.360 in the world in her collection. She hired expert gardeners 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:08.520 to tend and develop them, and she amassed more than 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:12.679 two hundred fifty species in her garden. Knowing that the 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.760 winters would be hard on some of her beloved plants, 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.760 she had greenhouses built with their own coal burning heat sources, 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:23.280 which is amazing and horticulturally really cool because at that 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:26.959 point plenty of humans are not living as well as 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:31.320 her plants. Yeah, it's cool from a horticultural standpoint, but 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:36.919 from a human one exactly. I have this like mental image, 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:40.080 and I have no like historical documentation to back this up, 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.680 but I just had this mental image of like impoverished 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:46.280 people staring at these greenhouses, like where the plants are 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:50.240 being heated in winter, and thinking, are you kidding me? 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:53.240 That would be really nice for us to not be cold. 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.359 Botanical illustrator Peter Joseph dot who was an artist who 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.960 served in the court of Louis the sixteenth and Marie Antoinette, 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:04.480 and also managed to continue to be successful throughout the 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:08.359 French Revolution. He did not become victimized by his associations. 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:13.280 Published a collection of watercolor simply titled Rose in three 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:16.639 volumes over the course of eighteen seventeen to eighteen twenty four, 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:19.600