A tribute to roses

Roses are arguably the most popular of flowers exalted for their scent and beauty. The red rose is the symbol of love and what woman doesn't go weak at the knees when presented with a red rose from her companion.

Roses have been movingly portrayed in paintings and literature for centuries.

From Shakespeare writing in Romeo and Juliet

'What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet' there are hundreds of quotations from which to choose.

Here are a few of my favourites

Won't you come into the garden?

I would like my rose to meet you.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

On Richmond Hill there lived a lass

More bright than May-day morn,

Whose smiles all other maids surpass,

A rose without a thorn.

Leonard McNally

The lily has an air,

And the snowdrop a grace,

And the sweet pea a way,

And the heart's ease a face, -

Yet there's nothing like the rose

When she blows.

Christina G. Rossetti

Rose trees either side the door were

Growing lithe and growing tall,

Each one set a summer warder

For the keeping of the hall, -

With a red rose and a white rose

Leaning, nodding at the wall.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning