“A rose does not answer its enemies with words, but with beauty.” ~ Matshona Dhliwayo
At the turn of the calendar year, and for some weeks thereafter, I usually find myself obsessing about roses. Their perfume, their petals, their potency, even their thorns – and I see now that it’s a direct response to the idea of winter settling in and taking up residence for the next few months. It’s my way of bringing a sliver of summer and sunlight into the unbreakable season of slumber. Tellingly, it is the fragrance of the rose that touches me most – bringing back childhood memories of the rose garden across the street, and later of roses I grew in my own garden, and finally the roses that Andy was growing when I first met him. All are happy recollections, all drenched in summer and sun.
Most recently, a rustic Rosa rugosa has made its home poolside – it’s entanglement of impossibly-thorny stems made nearable by its exquisite fragrance – as much a sign of summer as of the sea, where these beach roses make their most famous home. It brings to mind vacations in Ogunquit and Cape Cod, seashore romps where dried seaweed mingle with sea grass, and these roses are one of the few plants that manages to bloom in the harsh salty environs.
“As delicate as flower, as tender as rose petals, choosing to be tender and kind in a harsh environment is not weakness, it’s courage.” ~ Luffina Lourduraj
For all these reasons, I find comfort in the fragrance of a rose. Oddly enough, I don’t employ many rose frags in summer. Only the real thing will do then. Synthetic approximations and essential oil concoctions are all too heavy for the lighter seasons, but in winter they call to me, as they are doing once again. This is the time of the year when we so ache for something like a rose, even a facsimile will suffice.
There are some glorious imposters out there, and the Houses of Tom Ford and Frederic Malle each have a couple of rose fragrances to see us through the dimmer days and darker nights. Each is wonderfully distinctive to the palette, woefully so to the wallet, and I’m left wanting a new one for day and night. Stay tuned to see where the quest currently rests…
“A rose does not lose sleep because it was mocked by weeds.” ~ Matshona Dhliwayo
