quotations about roses
Be honest: the roses one encounters in daily life are, mostly, hideous. Think of the colors: syphilitically inflamed orange, or highlighter-pen salmon, or nylon pink, or overripe-banana yellow. How often have you bent to smell a neighbor's rose, ready to snort up a lungful of Turkish-delight deliciousness, only to discover no scent at all?... And no one knows how to prune them. Invariably either overdisciplined or scrubby, viciously trained into a municipal pygmy or as amateurishly hacked at as a young porcupine with a home haircut, the vast majority are tragic shadows of the perfect rose in its ruffled, scented bounty.
CHARLOTTE MENDELSON
"Let's Ban Roses", The New Yorker, June 21, 2017
Generally, a rose first blooms in May around Mother's Day, and these blooms are the most robust and beautiful. Roses continue to blossom throughout the summer with a second flowering in October. They then go dormant from December to February -- perhaps hinting at the gloomy winter days to come.
MELISSA ANDREWS
"A Fall Fragrance", Columbia Metropolitan, October 5, 2017
I send you roses
With all the love their tender blossoming discloses
Just like my arms they'll open wide
You'll see my heart inside
GEORGE MORGAN
"Roses"
It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.
MAUD HART LOVELACE
Betsy-Tacy and Tib