The Rose

by Jennifer Potter

This vividly written and lavishly illustrated book challenges many cherished beliefs about the rose. It looks set to establish itself as the definitive history of the Queen of Flowers. Ever since Sappho planted roses at the shrine of Aphrodite, no flower has captured the imagination in quite the same way. Wherever it has grown, human beings have projected on to it their dreams and aspirations. Celebrated as a sacred symbol and as a token of womanhood, the rose unites Venus with the Virgin Mary, the blood of Christ with the sweat of Muhammad, the sacred and the profane, life and death, the white rose of chastity and the red rose of consummation. In The Rose, the acclaimed horticultural historian Jennifer Potter shows what, exactly, gives this most fragrant flower its potency in societies around the world. Beginning her story in the Greek and Roman empires, she travels across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas to unravel its evolution from a simple briar of the northern hemisphere to the height of cultivated perfection found in rose gardens today. Whether laying bare the flower's long association with sexuality and secret societies, questioning the Crusaders' role in bringing roses back from the Holy Land, or hunting for its elusive blooms in the gardens of the Empress Josephine at Malmaison, Jennifer Potter reveals why this flower, above all others, has provoked such fascination.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Nature, Art, Gardening, Science

560 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Jennifer Potter, born in 1949, writes about the history and culture of plants, plantsmen and gardens. She reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, and has been variously a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, a Hawthornden Fellow and an Honorary Teaching Fellow on the Warwick Writing Programme.

Reviews

[Kate Forsyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone who loves roses – as I do – is called a ‘rose-fancier’. I’ve always loved that term. On the one hand, it has connotations of something that is fancy or fantastical: dreamy, whimsical, capricious, voluptuous. On the other hand, the word implies someone who is a ‘fan’ or a ‘fanatic’ in the sense of being excessively and unreasonably enthusiastic, coming from the Latin term fanaticus, meaning ‘worshipping at a temple’.

This gorgeously produced and illustrated book by Jennifer Potter is the perfect gift for a rose-fancier. It tells the history, mythology and romance of the rose from its very earliest days, many millions of years ago. As the author tells us, ‘roses appeared on earth after the dinosaurs but long before man.’

Jennifer Potter is described as a horticultural historian (what a wonderful job that would be!) and was, until recently, a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at King’s College in London. The book moves through time and across geographies, from ancient Greece to Rome and thence through all of Europe, and from ancient China along the silk roads and the trade routes to Persia, and, eventually, to the United States. It is particularly concerned with the depiction of the rose in art and poetry. Jennifer Potter examines how roses flourished in the work of such diverse writers as Sappho, William Shakespeare and Gertrude Stein; and traces the history of roses in visual arts from the first depiction in Minoan Knossos frescoes 3,500 years ago to their overt symbolism in the 1999 film ‘American Beauty’.

The Rose: A True History is gorgeous to look at and utterly fascinating to read, whether you dip in and out or devour it all in just a few sittings, as I did.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because I fell in love with the beautiful illustrations, and as such I didn't have too high expectations for the text itself which was probably for the best. The writing is tediously difficult to follow, sentences are far too long and often 'decorated' with (unsourced!!) citations that make it even harder to follow the meaning. It's really a shame because a bit of editing work would save an otherwise enjoyable and informative book - it's still a joy to look at though, so not regretting I own this one.

[Just Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writing was well-researched but not very engaging. Seemed more like a data dump than much of a woven story...The author does warn about crazy chronology jumping at the beginning, but even with the warning it was a bit tough to follow all the lineages and cultures involved even from one paragraph to the next. Ultimately I gave up a third through, tore out all the illustrations, then tore out all the pages and used the binding as an awesome folder for my new botanical rose illustration collection.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grabbed this one because I love roses, and I was intrigued by the cultural history of the flower. Those parts of the book were really good. Unfortunately, I had to wade through a lot of cultivation history, French names, and variety names that I had no pictures to connect to in order to get to the good parts. I'd say this book is more for those who grow show roses than those who just enjoy them.

[Joanna Mawdsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book with everything you would ever want to know about roses.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book!