I Bet Ya Didn't Know

I Bet Ya Didn't Know: Roses:

Roses do not have thorns 'they have prickles'. A prickle is a growth on the outer side of the epidermis. Thorns are produced in the inner tissues of the stem.

Fossil specimens of the rose have been found in Montana, Colorado and Oregon, USA, which prove that the rose existed 35 million years ago.

It takes between 10000 to 15000 hand picked rose blooms to make 11g of rose oil. The value of rose oil in weight is 5 times more than the same weight in gold.

The World’s Largest Rose Bush is a White Lady Banksia in Tombstone Arizona. The original root came from Scotland in 1885. From a single trunk it has spread over an arbor that covers over 2000 square meters. Each spring it is covered with millions of tiny white blooms.

In 1455 the York family (represented by a white rose) and the Lancaster family (represented by a red rose) started the war of the roses in England. It is said that they stopped fighting when a rose bush that was half red and half white was found.

The rose is the official national floral emblem of the United States. This legislation was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on October 7, 1986. The rose is also the state flower of Georgia, Iowa, New York, North Dakota and the District of Columbia.