In the latest in our A-Z series, volunteer archivist Cluny Wells takes a trip through our Rosary. 

Roses in history

Way, way back in pre-history there were roses. Rose fossils from 35 million years ago have been found in Colorado, USA, while fossilised roses from the late Miocene period (around 11 to 5 million years ago) have been discovered in the Yunnan Province in China. Cultivation started early, possibly around 5,000 years ago, spearheaded by the Chinese and the Egyptians, with Chinese roses widely cultivated during the Han Dynasty (141-187 BC).

The world’s oldest living rose, meanwhile, is believed to be 1,000 years old. It grows on the wall of the Cathedral of Hildesheime in Hanover, Germany. This dog rose (Rosa canina) has been documented since A.D. 815.

Roses and symbolism

When we talk about roses, we’re usually referring to the plants within the genus Rosa, a group of woody perennial flowering plants that can grow as self-supporting shrubs, climbers, or trailers. Ornamental roses have been cultivated by gardeners for millennia, resulting in the thousands of varieties we see across the world today.

With both delicate petals and sharp, defensive thorns, perhaps it’s the natural duality of the rose that makes it the perfect vehicle for symbolic meaning. We may use a rose to express our love or to suppress information: keeping something ‘sub rosa’ (a Latin proverb meaning ‘beneath the roses’).

A rose would even be hung from the ceilings of ancient Roman council chambers so that all those beneath the rose (‘sub rosa’) were pledged to keep discussions held in the room a secret. This tradition continued and it became common across Europe in the Middle Ages to decorate the ceiling of political chambers and Christian confessional booths with carvings of roses.
A rose motif in a historical building in Britain, meanwhile, is likely to stand for the Tudor rose. The Tudor family adopted this rose to represent the peace between the houses of York and Lancaster

Roses in cooking

Alongside being valued for their symbolic value, roses were and still are commonly harvested for consumption. Rose water can be made by steeping the petals in hot water and is a common ingredient in cosmetics, as well as often featuring as the main flavour in desserts such as baklava or in Turkish delight. The Damask rose can also be ground into a powder, used for flavouring meat on its own, or as an ingredient in common spice mixtures such as ras-el-hanout and harissa.

Roses in Art and Decoration

The Belgian artist Redoute is the one who springs to mind in connection with 18th century rose painting but others such as the English artist Mary Lawrence (1796) and Henri Fantin-Latour also became known for such paintings. It seems that roses were depicted in more than a third of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema classical paintings in Victorian times. In the 1950s the artist Georgia O’Keefe painted single large close-up blooms of roses. Porcelain companies such as Wedgwood designed dinner services, which would become classics, such as their ‘Moss Rose’ in 1945.

Roses in Performance: Roses played a big part of an artistic performance – in the ballet ‘Le Spectre de La Rose’ performed in Monte Carlo 1911 Vaslav Nijinsky, the principal male dancer was sewn into his figure-hugging costume, and then rose petals were sewn onto the costume for each and every performance.
Roses in literature: Persia (modern day Iran) was for a long while the centre of rose veneration in literature – within the poem The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (11th century) for instance, roses have many mentions. The Persian poet and philosopher Sa’di wrote his most famous work ‘The Rose Garden’ in 1258 and he explained why the rose was important to him, in his introduction –

Of what use will be a dish of roses to thee? Take a leaf from my rose garden. A flower endures but five or six days. But this rose garden is always delightful.

The tradition of writing songs featuring roses goes back to Medieval times, and that tradition has carried on. ‘I Never Promised You a Rose Garden’ is just one of the many Rose songs written in modern times. In the early 1950s it was estimated that there were around 4,000 songs with the word Rose in the title.

Roses at Chiswick

What about roses in Chiswick House Gardens? The roses at Chiswick have a strong link with the French château Malmaison. Located just outside Paris, the property was chosen by Empress Joséphine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, and gifted to her in their divorce settlement.

Malmaison achieved enduring fame for its rose garden. The Empress created an extensive collection of roses, gathering plants from her native Martinique and from other places around the world, and growing around 250 varieties of rose. She later commissioned the Belgian artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) to record her roses, and prints of these works are still selling well.

Lewis Kennedy (1789-1877), who designed the Italian Garden at Chiswick in about 1812/13 for the 6th Duke of Devonshire, had previously worked at Malmaison for the Empress – and the influence of this can be seen in the rope swags around the back of the Italian Garden, which are reminiscent of some at Malmaison.

The first mention of a Rosary at Chiswick, according to David Jacques, was in 1804, when it was being worked on by labourers. Duchess Georgiana was reputed to love roses and would probably have heard about the Rosaries in France, especially as there was contact and sharing of plants between the French and English during the brief peace of Amiens (1802 -1803).

In 1811 a visitor mentions seeing a Rosary in Chiswick with 120 varieties of roses in it, meaning that we can only surmise that the Chiswick Rosary was completed some time between 1804 and 1811. We also know that it had a central bed around the Doric Column, containing about 44 roses, and there were four surrounding crescent shaped rose beds, each of which appeared to contain 21 roses.

Plans for the Rosary Restoration, put together in 1990, were almost identical to the 19th century layout. However, some changes were made, with the key one being a decision to have 6 outer rose beds instead of 4.

In 2010, 6 fan shaped beds around the central bed of the Chiswick Rosary were planted with old rose varieties, with 5 of the oldest types of rose donated by David Austin Roses.

These beds are named as follows, in alphabetical order, and with their main characteristics:

ALBA – These date back to the Middle Ages, are very tough and durable. Require the minimum of care. Strongly scented. Shades of soft pink or white.

CENTIFOLIA – The Provence Rose, a more modern group forming larger shrubs. The rounded flowers are often depicted in the paintings of the Dutch Masters.

DAMASK – Another very old group, said to have been originally brought from the Middle East by the Crusaders. Often paler in colour than the Gallicas and wonderfully fragrant.

GALLICA – the oldest of garden roses, the originals being grown by the Greeks and Romans. The flowers are often dark in colour and beautifully formed. Relatively thornless.

MOSS – These are generally Centifolias that have developd a moss-like growth on their sepals and which produces a sticky fragrant oil. Popular in Victorian times.

PORTLAND – The central bed, around the Doric Column is made up of this type of rose. The Old Roses were crossed with repeat flowering varieties introduced from China during the18th century and groups like Portland were developed – this is a small but very valuable group of roses that are truly Old Rose in character and have the advantage of repeat flowering. They have a strong fragrance and are generally healthy. 

The atmosphere in the Rosary is of a tranquil space – in fact a ‘Silent Space’. The Rosary is being developed to enable Chiswick House & Garden visitors, volunteers and community partners to improve their well-being and connectedness to Nature. The project involves Chiswick Gardens’ specialist Chris Poole, who has led all the improvements in the Rosary over the last two years, CHGT staff, and local community groups Trinjan and Jaimini Patel.

This Space will be the first Silent Space in a free access urban setting.

Sources used:

• CHGT Archive

Books

• Rose by Catherine Horwood, 2018
• A Short History of Flowers: The stories that make our gardens by Advolly Richmond and Sarah Jane Humphrey , 2024
• Chiswick House Gardens: 300 years of creation and re-creation by David Jacques, 2022
• The book of classic old roses by Griffiths, Trevor, 1928
• Handbook of Roses by David Austin, 2024