There are thousands of rose cultivars that people grow in gardens and on farms. This 'Tuscany Superb' rose cultivar was discovered in 1837. Hundreds of years ago, the roses in people's gardens looked different from most roses grown today. Cleopatra VII of Egypt was said to have had a floor of her palace covered in roses before her lover Mark Antony visited her. Anything which was said 'under the rose' was considered to be a secret. They would wear roses tied onto string around their neck. Rich Romans would lie on couches with roses laid on them. He was the Roman god of desire – in one myth, he dropped nectar and the nectar bubbled up from the ground as roses. It was also linked with Cupid (son of Venus). Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. The rose was sacred to Venus (mythology). Roses are widely used across the world as symbols of love, sympathy or sorrow. Rose bushes are able to live in a wide variety of conditions. This is a common defense system in plants. Most roses have spines (incorrectly called thorns) on their stems. Many roses have a strong, pleasant scent. Over hundreds of years they have been specially bred to produce a wide variety of growing habits and a broad range of colours from dark red to white including as well yellow and a bluish/lilac colour. The wild rose species can be grown in gardens, but most garden roses are cultivars, which have been selected by people. There are over 100 different species of roses. All roses were originally wild: they grew in North America, Europe, northwest Africa and many parts of Asia and Oceania. Roses belong to the family of plants called Rosaceae. Rose thorns are actually prickles – outgrowths of the epidermis

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