Hello everyone, back to blogging kurz und knapp! Our garden has become healthier these days. I am just updating you with some pictures of our flowers and my tomatoes!

Who is the Queen of the Garden?

(hint, it is not me) Roses are considered as the "queen of the garden". Now, that got me thinking why? Why not some other flower. I will share some questions I asked myself and how I looked for the answers.

SEMIOTICS OF ROSES:
To understand the rose we look at the symbolism. The study of symbols and it's meaning and use/ interpretations.

• Color
• shape
• pattern
• what is it known for?
• common uses

With these information we could probably derive the significance of roses in the society and why we love this flower so much and why to most, it is the best.

COLOR

Let us start with color. Our eyesight is the fastest to perceive stimuli therefore what we see is what we understand almost in an instant. What color is a rose? Warm colors comprise most of rose species like red, pink, yellow, and white. There are newer breeds in between that spectrum but majority is red and pink.

ANTHOCYANINS CREATE THE PINK-RED COLORS OF MOST FLOWER PETALS AND FRUITS:
The color psychology of pink describes the color as a soft and less intense version of red and it means compassion and unconditional love.
The color psychology of red describes the color as something that represents energy, power, passion, strength, war, love and desire

These colors represent a lot of emotions which mostly are loving and strong. We could say red is intense but it is strong and pure emotions like this that make many things worth living for. For example, our blood is red, it gives us life, flames are often red or orange, it helps us survive and flourish. Symbolically we could say that the colors of roses are very lively and help us be lively and filled with compassion.

SHAPE AND PATTERN

We observe almost simultaneously the shape and patterns. What is with a rose? the features are smooth and soft for the petals, very saturated green color of the leaves (patterened with zig zags at the end and grouped by threes), the rose buds are small and cute, it blooms and we see the layers of the petals as if they were hands cupped together forming a spiral to a center, then we have pollen at the center where bees and insects visit and where the fragrance seems to be released. As it opens we see a gradual unfolding of petals first on the outer layer until it makes a full bloom and as it ages it still looks beautiful as the petals shrivel and curl backward making the rose look like a pale star blooming from the ground.

THE SPIRAL AND THE LIFE AT THE CENTER
A friend and I have been discussing "Logos" a greek word which is unique and so original it means "word" or "reason". Now we interpret logo or logos as a symbol but the etymology speaks more of it as being a representation of something.

• Logos is the word itself, it is reason, it is the very core of whatever exists.
  the word Logos also is used in theology as the Word of God or in simpler terms "the principle of divine reason and creative order which is identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity, Jesus.

• In psychology it is the principle of reason and judgment, associated with the animus.

With Logos we identify the order of creation which came about with reason and the power to create it. Now, all things are created with a design, notice the veins on our hands are not far from the image of the veins in leaves or the roots of plants. How almost all animals are governed and use either all of the five senses or at least three. We all have eyes and need oxygen to survive. The pattern exists.

SPIRALS ARE A UNIVERSAL STRUCTURE

• The spiral is also found in structures as small as the double helix of DNA and as large as a galaxy.
  Found this definition on google however I cannot go far in explaining DNA which I really cannot. To keep it simple let us imagine more spirals shall we? Fill a basin with water and unplug the cork, the water spirals down the drain. Or you can observe a twister (on a video hopefully not in real life that's dangerous). A twister is a form of natural power that spirals and travels. In fact it's not just the spiral which is universal, it is also the form of roots or veins like roots, and synapses in our brain cells and the galaxy's design which seem to be patterned similarly.

A small article on spirals

Can you tell me why a spiral design seems omnipresent in our natural world and in the universe? I see this pattern in plant tendrils, flowers and leaves, pinecones, the unfurling of needles, as well as in astronomy. — Dorothea Fox Jakob, Toronto

The article answers:

The short answer is, sadly, we don’t really know. Nature does seem to have quite the affinity for spirals, though. In hurricanes and galaxies, the body rotation spawns spiral shapes: When the center turns faster than the periphery, waves within these phenomena get spun around into spirals.
The florets in a sunflower head also form two spirals, but there’s no rotation here — it’s simply an efficient packing solution for the plant. With 55 florets running clockwise and 34 counterclockwise, the sunflower is an example of a pattern of numbers called the Fibonacci sequence, named after the medieval mathematician who popularized it. It’s a simple pattern with complex results, and it is often found in nature.
The Fibonacci sequence starts with 0 and 1 and increases based on the sum of the previous two numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 and so on. You’ll notice that both groups of florets in a sunflower match Fibonacci numbers — as do the number of rows in a pinecone, the arrangement of leaves on a stem and many other natural formations. In fact, the spiral shape itself is built upon the rapidly increasing pattern of the Fibonacci sequence.
But since nature’s swirly patterns result from a few different mechanisms, the phenomenon is likely coincidence more than some underlying physical property of the universe. Nevertheless, it is striking that many natural examples follow this number sequence, either broadly in their curling shape or with their actual numerical values.
Link: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/why-is-our-universe-filled-with-spirals

• Fibonacci
  Link: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Fibonacci-sequence-so-important
  Fibonacci is about patterns we identify, It may not mean anything to people who cannot identify its significance and common occurrence in nature but I personally think it has significance even if people do not value it. The field of science and mathematics is precise and accurate like medicine, calibration of quantities and formulas for problem solving.

logic cannot be random or sense cannot be derived from nothing and something cannot function or have a system of functions without a design. If you pick up a wrist watch from the street you don't really say wow this came from nowhere and nothing, initially we think of the design, functions and mechanism of it and the purpose it serves which really cannot be "of nothing".

Some people may believe the significance of this or not but there is some relationship to the reality of nature to this sequence.

To whether this is mystical or not, I cannot agree or disagree since I know only that Fibonacci is useful in mathematics but it also represents a pattern which is prevalent everywhere.

Link: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Fibonacci-sequence-so-important

A rose's shape sometimes may look like a spiral, a burst or layers circulating upon a center. Now we look at the center:

THE CENTER IS LIFE
Why is the center important?

What is in the center of your eye? the Iris, the pupil. And it is the window of your soul. What is in the center of your torso? The heart, which pumps blood to keep you alive. What is in the middle of your head? The brain which governs life and consciousness.

• What is important with the center of the rose? it is the pollen, the fragrance and it's fruit where the seed will also come from*

The "center" of a fruit likewise is the center of life as a woman's center can grow a aby bump and give birth to a child.

ROSEHIPS
Rosehips are the fruit of a rose.

Let me just list down what can be done to a rose and rosehips"
Food
Drink
medicine

• jam, jelly, marmalade
• soup, tea
• high vitamin C
• rose creams
• Rose water
• rose syrup
• rosa chinensis for stomach problems

Readmore here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose#Ornamental_plants

I am also surpised at the uses of roses. They are ornamental, fragrant, good for the skin and body. If roses could sing then it would be something good for all of the five senses. Emotionally roses and flowers, nature in general make us feel positive emotions and to heal. It is also the most common symbol of romantic love or love for family. So maybe it really does deserve the great title of the queen of roses.

Roses also bloom so frequently and at every batch a small plant can reach up to 10-15 buds sprouting one after the other and blooming day by day.

This appreciation I have for nature and these beautiful roses got me asking so many questions but now I feel content with what I researched.

It is the queen because of all its benefits and uses and psychological and physiological advantages.

I love the symbolims of nature pointing to the grand design of our Creator. If we look at other flowers, like orchids they have a great story to tell too! Maybe on my next post we can venture to look at the most unique orchids there are.

What do you think?

Are roses your favorite plant? Comment below about this!

See You All soon!

T H A N K Y O U V E R Y M U C H