Last week I picked a perfect rose from my garden. It’s called “Deep Secret”. It’s a deep, velvety red, with an almost overpowering fragrance.
Christine Bryant
One bloom can perfume an entire room. It doesn’t flower prolifically – just one blossom at a time – but it has a long season, and I will be picking the last bloom in late autumn.
It’s that time of the year again when garden shows abound, especially rose shows.
Te Awamutu has an active Rose Society to thank for the stunning show last weekend (see story page 9) which was testimony to months of love and care by all the growers and gardeners who exhibited.
The rose is more lauded in poetry than any other flower. From Chaucer’s The Legend of Cleopatra, through Shakespeare: What’s in a name?
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet (Romeo and Juliet Act II), to Robert Burns: My love is like a red, red rose… a German carol says about the birth of Jesus: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen… (A rose has sprung …)
And so, by this meandering route, I came to contemplate again how therapeutic gardens and gardening are.
Taking time to smell the roses is one of the most powerful antidotes to feelings of being overwhelmed by anxiety and stress. The sight of a flourishing rose garden, the bees buzzing around the blooms, the many colours and the fragrance of the roses combine to remind one that, however stressful life is, the calming effect of a beautiful rose can help create balance in a busy life.
There is, of course, no avoiding a world that causes anxiety, whether it is students who are about to sit exams, farmers feeling overwhelmed with all the tasks to be done or parents striving to meet the needs of their children.
Jesus, 2000 years ago, gave us sound advice about how it is important not to worry needlessly, but to focus on what is important.
In the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, there is no “Blessed are the those who rush about frenetically”; instead: Blessed are the peacemakers, that is, those who take time to listen and to create a calm space where everyone feels valued.
He did not speak about roses, but about lilies: And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. (Matt. 8).
Jesus said: Seek first the kingdom of God – this is the key which enables us to prioritise all aspects of our lives.
It follows then that all the other things we need will flow from this.
I am grateful that contemplating a beautiful rose and smelling its perfume is a way to put life back into perspective.
So, take out the picnic basket, head for the Rose Gardens and revel in the beauty of nature and the skill of our local gardeners.
The iconic bird sculpture at Te Awamutu Rose Garden designed by Ngāti Korokī Kahukura artist Fred Graham.
