• Number of wild rose species around the world: 140
  Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book by Graham Stuart Thomas (John Murray)
  
  
• Number of rose species growing wild in Britain: 20
  New British Flora of the British Isles by Clive Stace (Cambridge University Press)
  
  
• Number of rose cultivars in existence: 2591
  Find that Rose 2000/2001 (Royal National Rose Society)
  
  
• Number of rose cultivars with variegated leaves: 2
  The PlantFinder 2000-2001: Rosa ’ÄòCuriosity’Äô and R. wichurana’ÄòVariegata’Äô; a dwarf form of R. wichurana’ÄòVariegata’Äô is no longer available; a correspondent from New Zealand tells me he grows a different variegated rose but does not know the name.
  
  
• Number of rose varieties that have only a single stockist: 37
  The PlantFinder 2000-2001
  
  
• Percentage of the above rose varieties that is stocked solely by Peter Beales Roses: 35%
  The PlantFinder 2000-2001
  
  
• Number of roses introduced at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1981 that are no longer available: 4 out of 7
  Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library
  
  
• Number of roses introduced at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1991 that are no longer available: 3 out of 20
  Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library
  
  
• Percentage of gardeners who consider scent to be the most important feature of a rose: 50%
  Royal Horticultural Society/Dorling Kindersley survey 2000
  
  
• Of the most popular rose varieties, the percentage that has no scent: 60%
  Royal National Rose Society annual Rose Survey 2000
  
  
• Number of rose quotations in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations: 90
  Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (Oxford Universiety Press) - not including those relating to people called Rose and other non-horticultural entries.
  
  
• Number of rose quotations written by William Shakespeare in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations: 10
  Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (Oxford Universiety Press)
  
  
• Number of roses that are named after Shakespearean characters: 24
  Find that Rose 2000/2001 (Royal National Rose Society)
  
  
• Number of roses introduced by David Austin Roses that are named after Shakespearean characters: 11
  Find that Rose 2000/2001 (Royal National Rose Society); not including those which seem, to vague or general to be specifically Shakespearean.
  
  
• Number of web pages that contain the word "rose": 5,243,133
  Northen Light search engine
  
  
• Number of pages on the Royal National Rose Society’Äôs website: 29
  Counted on the site itself.
  
  
• Number of rose books in print: 88
  Counted on www.amazon.co.uk; only those specifically on roses.
  
  
• Size of the tallest rose in Britain, ’ÄòKiftsgate’Äô, at the garden of that name: 80ft x 90ft x 50ft high
  Personal communication from Kiftsgate garden.
  

Rose banter

THE ROSE IS BRITAIN’ÄôS FAVOURITE FLOWER, I HEAR? If the results of a survey to find the nation’Äôs favourite flower, carried out by publishers Dorling Kindersley and the Royal Horticultural Society, are to be believed, although it only won 17 per cent of the vote.

SO 83 PER CENT OF GARDENERS DON’ÄôT LIKE ROSES AT ALL? Don’Äôt be prickly, the rose still scored more than twice as many votes as the joint second favourites, clematis and fuchsia. But it’Äôs interesting that plant guru Christopher Lloyd has replaced his family rose garden at Great Dixter with bananas.

SO IT’ÄôS A BIT OF A MIXED MESSAGE? You could say that. It appears that gardeners love the scent but hate the thorns.

ARE THERE NO THORNLESS ROSES? Actually, there are about a dozen, but ’ÄòZˆ©phirine Drouhin’Äô is the one most commonly grown.

WHICH REMINDS ME, WHY DO SO MANY ROSES HAVE FRENCH NAMES? Empress Josˆ©phine possessed a vast rose garden and inspired a great love of rose growing among the French, who introduced and named a huge number of varieties in the 19th century. She used to wander round her rose garden at night, sniffing the blooms.

WELL, WITH NAPOLEON’ÄôS LACK OF NOCTURNAL INTEREST I SUPPOSE SHE HAD NOTHING BETTER TO DO. Let’Äôs just say she devoted herself to her garden. And, oddly enough, one of the few thornless roses in existence is a form of ’ÄòEmpress Josephine’Äô.

SOME FAMOUS ROSES Francis Rose (sailor), Rose of Tralee (song), Rose Theatre (Shakespearean theatre), Rose Tremain (novelist), Yellow Rose of Texas (song), Last Rose of Summer (song), Broadway Danny Rose (film)

SOME INFAMOUS ROSES Justin Rose (young golfer), Guns ’Äôn’Äô Roses (rock group), Gypsy Rose Lee (stripper, novelist and film star)


Rose quotes

SHE LOVES ROSES
Mirabel Osler, garden writer and author of several fiction and non-fiction gardening titles

"’ÄòLouise Odier’Äô is a rose of such adorable refinement you can’Äôt imagine her slightly lilac-pink, deeply cupped petals arranged in any other way."
(A Gentle Plea for Chaos, Bloomsbury, 1989)

HE HATES ROSES
Sir Simon Hornby, President of the Royal Horticultural Society

"I hate rose gardens. I never know why people have them, they don’Äôt have weigela gardens or philadelphus gardens. A formal rose garden is as ugly a thing as you can find."
(BBC Gardens Illustrated, April-May 1993)