A disclaimer: I am not a rosarian! I do have an area beside my home that I lovingly call "a rose garden," so I have been reading about different kinds of roses and their culture. Among my friends, I find some similarities to these wonderful flowers.
Greenhouse plants are cultivated for their singular beauty. There will not be a lot of flowers, maybe only one, but it will be "perfect." On the other hand, some garden climbers bloom so profusely that the trellis or fence supporting them is covered with roses and the ground beneath has been showered with petals. They are smaller flowers, true, and not so delicately formed, but the lavish display makes up for that difference.
To satisfy the American taste for what is big and bright, flower breeders have produced new strains of roses that have giant, long-lasting flowers in stunning colors. Along the way, though, most of the fragrance has been inadvertently bred out of some of those specimens. Many mass-produced roses have no detectable scent at all. Some of the garden-grown ones, however, are so sweet that one cut bloom can make a whole room fragrant.
If roses are obtained from a florist, they were probably cut before they were in full bloom, perhaps still only buds. The thorns will have been removed, and the stems tended carefully so that the flowers stay beautiful for several days inside one's home. Roses in the garden may not last as long, exposed as they are to the elements, pests, and disease. Some buds get damaged and never form a full flower. They have kept their thorns, however, to protect themselves from children and dogs, and many kinds bloom again and again throughout the season to please the rose-lover.
Need I explain the analogies? It's enough, I think, to say that all kinds of roses are lovely. And women whose experiences differ greatly and whose lives have not all been formed in the same way are equally lovely and valuable.
Marjorie
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