The art of the Paris rose garden
© Meredith Mullins

Taking Time to Smell the Roses

Julia Child. Arthur Rimbaud. Queen Elizabeth. Barbra Streisand. Elvis. Desdemona. Guy Savoy.

What do these characters have in common? Are they a guest list for an interesting other worldly dinner party?

Hot Chocolate. Salsa. Tequila Sunrise. Sugar and Spice. Cherry Parfait.

Are these all something we have had a craving for? Probably.

Love and Peace. Moondance. Stairway to Heaven. Best Friends Forever. Happy Harmony. Salvation. Compassion. Remember Me.

Poetry for the soul? No doubt.

What binds these inventive people and life themes together?

A flower for the ages
© Meredith Mullins

They are all names for roses—a flower for the ages—and a symbol of beauty, grace, and elegance for thousands of years.

“A rose is a rose is a rose,” said Gertrude Stein. True. But in this “Oh, I see” story, a rose is so much more.

La Roseraie du Val-de-Marne
© Meredith Mullins

Paris Pleasures: The Legendary Rose Gardens

As a tribute to the art of travel and in the spirit of continual exploration of one’s city, I made a date with my favorite Paris rose gardens—La Roseraie du Val-de-Marne and the Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne.

The Bagatelle in the Bois du Boulogne
© Meredith Mullins

In late spring and summer, roses also flourish in the Jardin des Plantes, Parc Floral, Palais Royal, Parc Monceau, and other smaller gardens throughout the city.

Roses in the Palais Royal gardens
© Meredith Mullins

Because of the varied microclimates, the blossoms peak at different times. The reward? Their beauty lingers for months, especially if your timing is on target.

I found myself standing in front of each rose, each bush, each tree, each climber, each rambler, as if it were a Da Vinci, a Rembrandt, a Cezanne, or a Van Gogh—worthy of thoughtful study and silent reverence.

Worthy of silent reverence
© Meredith Mullins

Taking time to smell the roses became more than a cliché. It became a metaphor for the art of seeing—and the art of slowing down to live each moment with full sensory power. Now, I really see.

Simple elegance
© Meredith Mullins

History and Heritage

According to fossil evidence, the rose has been on earth for more than 35 million years. Its long cultural history features it in art, literature, love, medicine, gastronomy, politics, and war.

During the War of the Roses in England, the red rose and white rose
became symbols of the opposing forces.
© Meredith Mullins

Roses have been cultivated in gardens for perhaps 5,000 years, becoming a growing trend (no pun intended) during the Roman Empire in large formal gardens—also for celebrations (rose petal confetti), medicinal uses, and perfumes.

Rose popularity continued through the centuries, as they became particularly important to royalty in Europe.

Rose gardens were part of most palaces and chateaux.
© Meredith Mullins

The roses of Paris are legendary and are a good source of rose history. The Roseraie in Val-de-Marne (L’Haÿ-les-Roses) provides a multi-sensory pathway through the centuries of rose evolution thanks to a business man—Jules Gravereaux—with a passion for photography and roses.

He began his collection of the world’s roses and the development of this garden for the conservation and study of roses in the late 19^th century.

Tea roses in the Roseraie du Val-de-Marne happily climbing the sunniest wall
© Meredith Mullins

The 13 collections of more than 11,000 rose bushes show wild and cultivated roses, heritage and modern roses, and roses of Europe as well as the Asian roses that changed the colors and styles of roses in Europe through careful hybridization beginning in the mid 1800s.

The traditional roses of Europe were white, pink, and fuchsia/crimson. With the introduction of Asian roses, a new palette of yellows and reds was added.

Adding colors to the palette of roses
© Meredith Mullins

The tonal range of the palette also changed. Roses from China had a tendency to “suntan” or darken over time, whereas traditional roses often lightened with age.

Gravereaux also helped to initiate the Bagatelle roses. The expansive rose garden is near the chateau that was built in the Bois du Boulogne for Marie Antoinette in 1775 as the result of a bet. Gravereaux provided many of the first rose species for that garden in the early 1900s.

Rayon de Soleil (ray of sun)—a good name for this explosion of warm yellow
© Meredith Mullins

The Bagatelle is particularly famous for the annual rose competition, where, in June, you see rows of beauties competing for the judges’ attention, putting their best petals forward, each blossom trying to outdo the next.

The public is also able to vote for their favorite rose and for the rose with the best fragrance.

This year’s winner for best new rose at the Bagatelle—a white so pure it seems of another world
© Meredith Mullins

The Fragrances

That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet—Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)

The variety of rose scents is extensive, especially if you have a nose for roses. As with the study of wine, identifying fragrances takes practice and an inherently good sense of smell. Mostly, though, it’s about enjoying the moment.

Darker colored, multi-petaled roses are generally more fragrant.
© Meredith Mullins

You’ll find lemon, grapefruit, raspberry, apricot, apple, clove, nutmeg, violets, green tea, honey, banana, clover, and the traditional “rose” smell of the Damask rose from Syria . . . plus many more subtle fragrances.

One of the main items on the rose’s “to do” list is to attract pollinators, so the scents originally were for insects (not us). For this important process, the rose fragrance varies with the time of day and with when the flower is ready to be pollinated.

Bees are busy during rose season.
© Meredith Mullins

These days, however, not all roses smell. When we lean in to a beautiful rose for the same kind of reward in its scent, often we are disappointed. Why? Because the smells of traditional roses have often been bred out of the rose to increase its disease resistance.

Commercial breeders also have a goal of creating roses that can grow in a range of climates, that bloom more frequently during the season, that will last longer when cut, and that have more varied colors—changes that require sacrifice.

New rose colors emerge
© Meredith Mullins

Bravo to the breeders who use science to give us both kinds of beauty. Roses like Double Delight, Perfume Delight, and Lovely Lady (and many more) are beautiful, as well as fragrant (just as their names indicate).

Who wouldn’t want to be greeted with a rose named “Good Morning”?
© Meredith Mullins

The Names

If you’re wondering how to get a rose named after you, here’s the scoop. When a new rose is developed and approved by the country’s rose association or society, the breeder can baptize the rose however he or she wishes.

The name can be a spouse, a lover, an uncle, a cousin, an admired person from history or contemporary life, a celebrity, a name that sounds as if it should be a rock band, a literal description, or words of philosophy or poetry. If the admired person is living, they must agree to be its namesake.

Pacific Dream
© Meredith Mullins

The name can also reflect the personality of the rose. For example, the Julia Child rose blossoms have butter yellow petals that fade over time to rich cream and smell of anise. Yum. There are also several “high-maintenace” roses. But we won’t name names.

My favorite rose designation at the Bagatelle garden was “A Chacun son Everest” (To each his own Everest). For me, this is a fitting ending for this “Oh, I See” story about the art of travel in Paris gardens.

To Each His Own Everest
© Meredith Mullins

We find our own pleasures. We follow our own dreams. We just have to remember to take time to enjoy them.

OK, I’ll say it. We just have to take time to smell the roses.

A moment for all the senses
© Meredith Mullins

For more information on Paris rose gardens, visit La Roserie du Val-du-Marne, Parc de Bagatelle, Jardin des Plantes, Palais Royal, Parc Floral, and Parc Monceau.

Thank you to the University of Illinois Extension, The Smell of Roses, and Slate as sources for parts of this story. 

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