rose gold

To celebrate the golden anniversary of Ludwig’s Roses – and its founder, Ludwig Taschner, who has filled our gardens and vases with South African roses for decades – we showcase favourites from his unique collection, in a style inspired by botanical illustrations

- HEIDI BERTISH

‘Beauty from Within’

Hybrid Tea rose with a deep, glowing centre as the petals are exposed to the sun. Prolific, cup-shaped blooms for the vase

From ancient times to the present day, the rose has been a timeless symbol of beauty, transience and love. The original wild or species rose, from which our current cultivars hail, evolved around 70 million years ago. Romantically, connections are thought to originate from the African continent – in Egypt, where Cleopatra famously carpeted her boudoir with rose petals to seduce Mark Antony. In Persia, the original wild roses were used to produce rosewater, secret elixirs, scented oils and perfume one and a half thousand years before they were cultivated for the garden. By 500 BC, the Romans and early European civilisations began growing roses for commercial use. Roman emperors filled swimming baths and fountains with rosewater and used their petals as confetti for celebrations and medicinal purposes.

‘Antico Amore’

Old world shape with the vigour and disease resistance of a modern rose. Delicate, sweet perfume

By the seventeenth century, roses were in such high demand that they were considered legal tender. In the eighteen hundreds, Napoléon’s wife, Joséphine Bonaparte, established an extensive collection of roses at the Château de Malmaison, her lavish estate just west of Paris. The gardens became a canvas for botanical illustrator Pierre-Joseph Redouté’s work, where he completed his renowned watercolour collection ‘Les Roses’, still considered one of the finest records of botanical illustration.