Gifts of the Earth: Roses Trivia Quiz

Answer: Josephine Bonaparte

Josephine Bonaparte purchased the Chateau de Malmaison in 1799, while Napoleon was fighting the Egyptian campaign. Amongst the many exotic specimens she incorporated was a rose garden, with varieties from all over the world. Such was its prestige that her rose orders from England were actually allowed free passage by the English with whom the French were at war. Malmaison eventually fell into disrepair after her death and was sold. It later became the property of the French government.

(chears58)

Answer: No

As to a black rose: well, there is a rose from Halfeti, Turkey, grown on the banks of the Euphrates, which is a very deep dark red and is considered to be almost black. Otherwise, apparently you can induce a bush to grow black blossoms, using black food coloring and ye old process of osmosis - remember science class and coloring carnations?

(babsr)

Answer: Emperor Pedro I of Brazil

The Order was created on October 17, 1829, honoring his marriage to Amelie of Leichtenberg. Its full designation is the Imperial Order of the Rose Cross, and its medallion is a six pointed cross in a circlet of open roses. An order is an organization based on historical societies of knights chivalrous. The Order is usually under the patronage of a royal house, with a medallion as its outward sign.

It is said that the Order was created because the emperor exclaimed that Amelie was as "beautiful as a rose". More likely it was because Amelie liked roses, and upon her arrival in Brazil, he surprised her with a diamond studded Grand Cross badge.

The Order was cancelled as a National Order on March 21, 1890, following the deposition of Emperor Pedro II. It is still a House Order awarded by the heads of the House of Orleans-Braganza.

The Motto for the Order is "Love and Fidelity".

(darkgnome101)

Answer: From her tears and the blood of her lover Adonis

In both Greek and Roman pantheons, the rose symbolizes hope and beauty.

The Romans also had Venus (their version of Aphrodite) with the rose as her symbol. It was believed in Roman mythology that Venus's son Cupid bent to smell a rose, and a bee flew out and stung him. Angry, he shot his arrows at the rose, causing it to grow thorns. Mythology also tells of Venus wounding herself on the thorns and bleeding on a rose, causing it to become red.

(darkgnome101)

Answer: Hildesheim Cathedral (Germany)

Tradition holds that Emperor Louis the Pious needed to hold a Mass while on a hunting trip in 815. He had carried a reliquary of the Virgin Mary with him, and it was hung on a nearby wild rose. Following the Mass, he was unable to remove the reliquary. Louis took this as a sign that he should establish a bishopric/diocese here, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. A cathedral was built on the site of the rose in 1010.

In 1945, aerial bombing of Hildesheim destroyed most of the cathedral, and killed the main above-ground growth of the rose. However, the roots were still viable, and within a short time new shoots appeared, with blooms sprouting in 1947. The rose is the city's symbol of its prosperity. Legend holds that Hildesheim will never decline as long as the rose keeps blooming.

(darkgnome101)

Answer: The Emperor watches dinner guests suffocating in a sea of rose petals

The story may have been political propaganda as the Emperor was deeply unpopular during his brief reign. More than a century earlier a similar tale was told about Nero whose architects had built an ingenious rotating floor in the banquet room of his Golden Palace. According to biographer Suetonius, they also made turning ceiling panels which could dump quantities of flowers and perfume onto the lucky diners!

Other popular flowers, such as the violet, were probably also rained down, but Alma-Tadema chose to depict roses. He had hundreds delivered to London each week from the Riviera while he was working on the painting. He completed it in 1888. It is housed in a private collection.

Heliogabalis ruled from 218-222 AD. It would have been difficult for him to greet Cleopatra as she had died in 30 BC.

(avriljean)

Answer: It is blue

Blue roses don't occur in nature as there is no blue pigment in their petals. The gene for the pigment delphinidin was obtained from pansies and inserted into a reddish purple rose. The resultant blue rose was named 'Applause'; it went on sale in 2009.

Critics claim that it appears lavender, like popular existing varieties such as 'Blue Moon' which were obtained by the usual hybridization methods. This has occurred because some of the natural pigment is still being expressed.

Since ancient times blue roses have been produced by dyeing the water of cut white roses. In fact, a twelfth century Arabic reference speaks of azure roses grown by inserting dye into the roots.

In the language of flowers they are supposed to represent luck with unrequited love.

Glow-in-the-dark roses have been around for a while, but are produced by chemical treatment of cut flowers. There are ongoing projects to produce the effect using synthetic DNA or jellyfish genes. (Seems likely to become a love them or hate them product!)

(avriljean)

Answer: The Rose of Tralee

A truly international festival, it gathers together young women of Irish descent worldwide and brings them to Tralee, the county town of County Kerry. With lively entertainment from a Rose Parade to fireworks and everything in between, the festival is a global celebration of everything Irish.

Two different stories exist regarding the authorship of the song. The first is that it was written sometime in the 1800s, with lyrics by Edward Mordaunt Spencer and music by Charles William Glover. The other is that it was authored by William Pembroke Mulchinock, who had fallen in love with his family's servant, Mary O'Connor. The story goes that he immigrated to India, and when he returned, he found that Mary had contracted tuberculosis and died. This is the story favored by the festival.

The young lady who is crowned as The Rose of Tralee is meant to epitomize the words of the song:

"She was lovely and fair as the rose of the summer,
Yet 'twas not her beauty alone that won me;
Oh no, 'twas the truth in her eyes ever dawning,
That made me love Mary, the Rose of Tralee".

"My Wild Irish Rose", another familiar song, was written by Irish-American Chancellor "Chauncey" Olcott, songwriter, singer and actor, who performed in minstrel shows and ultimately on Broadway. He wrote this song in 1899 for a production of "A Romance of Athlone". He was also the composer of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling", written in 1912 for a production of "The Isle O' Dreams".

"Sweet Rosie O'Grady" was written by Maude Nugent, another Irish-American actor, singer and dancer. She wrote it in 1896, as one of her compositions performed on the vaudeville circuit. This was the most famous of her songs. In 1949, at the age of 75, she appeared on the "Milton Berle" television show and performed the song, complete with a bit of hoofing.

There is no such song as "Rose of County Cork". I made that up. As noted earlier, the "Rose of Tralee" is from County Kerry.

(babsr)

Answer: Rose in Bloom

"Rose in Bloom" relates the story of Rose Campbell, a nineteenth century young woman coming of age and making her way in upper class society. The novel reflects Louisa's own feminist leanings.

Louisa was born to Transcendentalist parents in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. During the early part of her career she used the pen name of A.M. Barnard to write stories for inmates of juvenile hall. She favored the abolition of slavery and served as a nurse in the Union hospital at Georgetown in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War.

(greengreen)

Answer: The Tudor Rose

The Tudor Rose was created as a symbol of the unification of the two royal houses upon the marriage of King Henry VII of the House of Lancaster to Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV of the House of York in 1486. The Tudor Rose is depicted with the white petals in the middle and the red on the outside, and is used as the plant badge of England, just as Scotland uses the thistle, Ireland uses the shamrock, and Wales uses the leek.

(lacybear)