Shoutout to the local library for a wild fact about roses

I was flipping through an old gardening book at the Springfield branch last Tuesday and read that a single rose can have over 100 petals. I always thought it was way less, maybe 30 or 40 tops. The book said some heritage varieties bred for show are the real heavyweights. Has anyone here worked with a specific type that hit that crazy petal count?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley_adams25d ago

Ever counted the thorns on those things?

miles_fisher25d ago

Why would you even try to count them, @wesley_adams? That's missing the whole point. It's about the feeling, not the numbers. Like the way a cactus looks against a sunset, all sharp and beautiful. Or how a rose stem's thorns are part of its warning, part of its wildness. Getting hung up on counting seems to take the magic right out of it.

kelly36522d ago

Exactly. It's like trying to count the cracks in an old sidewalk. You stop seeing the pattern and the story of where the tree roots pushed through. You just see a math problem. Same with frost on a window. If you're busy counting each little feathery line, you miss how the whole thing just looks cold and quiet.