June is known for a lot of things: Father’s Day, the first day of summer, the end of the school year. While we’re always excited for all of that to come, there is one thing that we here at KaBloom are super excited about. Did you know that June is National Rose Month? The Rose is one of our favorite flowers, so it only seems fitting to us that there would be a whole month devoted to it. We did a little digging to learn more about the Rose’s importance throughout history and into today, and with its rich history, it seems only right to have a whole month devoted to it.
While it’s a little vague as to when or where National Rose Month started, or why June is the month that was chosen. Roses do tend to begin blooming in Spring, so perhaps when the month was established, June was when Roses were in their fullest bloom. But even though we can’t find out the exact origin of the celebration, it is hard to ignore the far-reaching popularity of the Rose. In fact, in 1986, President Ronald Reagan, in a speech where he said “we hold the Rose dear as the symbol of life and love and devotion, of beauty and eternity”, declared the flower as the National Floral Emblem. Because of this, if there was official business relating to a flower, the Rose was used by default. This is not the only presidential connection to the Rose. Did you know that George Washington was the first Rose breeder in the United States? Roses date back even further than Washington in the United States. In fact, a fossilized Rose was discovered in Colorado, believed to be 35 million years old! Even our ancestors were crazy about Roses!
Let’s face it. If someone asked you to name a flower, you’ll probably say the Rose. And that’s because pop culture has embraced the flower. Think back to the famous line from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. The play, first published in 1597, gives literature one of its most-quoted lines, showing people’s fascination with this simple flower. Try looking around in pop culture today, and it’ll be hard to not find Roses in some prominence. Think back to the 1997 epic film Titanic. What was the main character’s name? That’s right, Rose! Countless movies, like American Beauty (which is a species of red roses), V for Vendetta, The Phantom of the Opera, and Beauty and the Beast feature the red flower prominently. Even the music industry cannot hide from the flower’s beauty! The hit Bette Midler song “The Rose” sings of the fragile beauty of the flower, while Bobby Vinton’s “Roses are Red (My Love)” plays on the age-old romantic trope. The flower’s natural beauty and purity makes it so universal and so well-loved by so many, and is why it is often featured in many works of art.
National Rose Month seems too short to properly represent how widespread the obsession the country—and the world—has with the Rose is. If you think of a flower, you think of a Rose. It’s almost perfect, don’t you think? Now, how can you celebrate this month? Well, it might sound easy, but why not go out and get an arrangement of Roses to personally bask in its beauty. There are also plenty of botanical gardens, even some that cater directly to Roses, that are both enjoyable and very informative. Will all this focus on Roses, it seems unfair to the other beautiful flowers. If only we could think of a way to get the other eleven months devoted to different flowers! Stay tuned for more updates!
