“What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

No other flower is as deeply rooted in our culture and history as the rose. From Greek mythology to Hindu legend to Frescoes in Crete to the discovery of roses among other flowers in Egyptian tombs, roses have a long and colorful back-story that’s unmatched by any other bloom.

As a gardener I am obsessively addicted to roses. I have more than 700 bushes, shrubs, climbers, and ramblers of more than a hundred varieties of old roses, English roses, hybrid perpetuals, floribundas, and grandifloras. Naturally, this love extends to cutting roses and enjoying them in all manner of arrangements from a simple stem standing solo to a dome of like colors to a more freeform bouquet filled with a variety of flowers.

Conditioning cut flowers is worth the effort and will extend the life and beauty of your bouquets. Follow these steps for roses:

• Recut stems at a 45-degree angle and split the stem a couple of inches from the bottom.
• If their heads are drooping, wrap the entire bunch in wet newspaper and either float them in water or place them in a deep bucket of water up to their necks for several hours.
• Strip off all leaves that will be below the container’s water line. Remove thorns if they will make arranging difficult.
• Mist the heads with cool water.

Top: ‘Color Magic’ blossoms change from a blend of pink to deep rose to beige as they unfurl. Middle: The Weatherstone studio in full bloom. Bottom: The ‘Yves Piaget’ hybrid tea rose was an immediate sensation among French gardeners when it was first introduced during the mid-1980s. What’s not to love about this fragrant and decadent double-bloom?

Read more with step by step instructions on how to make a simple elegant arrangement.