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Valentine's Day a perfect time to talk roses

Roses are more popular than ever, but what do they mean?

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED FEB 14, 2024

This beauty is the Love and Peace rose, a moderately fragrant hybrid tea. Debbie Arrington

Happy Valentine’s Day! This is not only a date to celebrate romance but a good time to talk roses.

More than 250 million roses were produced for this Valentine’s Day, says the Society of American Florists. Those bouquets represent the bulk of an estimated $2.6 billion that Americans will spend on Valentine flowers this year, says the National Retail Federation.

Roses are by far the most popular gift flower year round, and their demand continues to grow. In 1989, Americans bought an estimated 1 billion roses over the course of the entire year (with Valentine’s Day being the peak period for rose sales). In 2023, U.S. rose sales hit 2.8 billion stems – enough for every adult American to get one 10-rose bouquet (plus a lot left over).

Why roses? According to florists, roses carry a lot of extra meaning, especially as a symbol of love.

That emotion has many shades, with different rose colors evoking various meanings. According to online florist BloomsyBox, roses hint at these qualities:

*White roses: Innocence and purity.

* Pink roses: Romance and happiness.

* Coral roses: Desire.

* Yellow roses: Love between friends.

* Peach roses: Modesty and appreciation.

* Lavender roses: Love at first sight.

* Red roses: Passionate love.

Most of those meanings were well known to Victorians, who used flowers to send coded messages.

In 1884, Kate Greenaway, a wildly popular illustrator of Victorian children’s books, created her illustrated “Language of Flowers” with hundreds of referenced blooms. Greenaway included 34 meanings just for roses (including those above), depending on their variety, color and form.

As for “love,” there are dozens of possible bouquet candidates (including fillers as well as flowers), depending on the intensity of that affection. Among them: Yellow acacia (“secret love”), ambrosia (“love returned”), red mum (“I love you”), yellow mum (“slighted love”), purple lilac (“first emotions of love”), lotus (“estranged love”), magnolia (“love of nature”), moss (“maternal love”), pear blossoms (“affection”) and pink carnations (“a woman’s love”).

As for adding a little rose love to your garden, February is a wonderful time to plant new bushes. The names of more than 15 varieties start with the word “Love,” “Love’s” or “Loving.” That includes the red grandiflora ‘Love’ as well as the hybrid teas ‘Love and Peace,’ ‘Love at First Sight,’ ‘Love Me Tender’ and ‘Loving Memory.’

For more on roses: https://www.rose.org/

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Keywords:

roses holidays flowers plants holiday plants Sacramento gardening gardening florists rose colors Valentine's Day

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?

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Garden checklist for week of May 17

With an eye on warmer weather to come, continue to work on the summer vegetable garden:

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. The wind can quickly dry out young plants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, calibrachoa, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

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