Blue Roses
The first night Rich was away this week, I had this really lucid dream, the kind that it takes you a few minutes upon waking to realize was just a dream. I had gone out late in the evening to water the tomatoes, and saw blue roses blooming between half of the plants along the right-side fence, and some in the back where the old rose bush was.
They were all different varieties, with different textures and colors -- some were like bush roses, pansy-like, and pale silvery-blue; others were more traditional single-stem roses, with a strong color bleed from bold blue to white from tip to center; some were smaller, bunched together maybe 4-6 in a grouping, tightly clustered like tea roses, and a solid sky blue. The fact that they were all different and so clearly defined is what made the dream so vivid.
The dream didn't come completely out of nowhere -- I've had a thing for blue roses since I was a child (even before the smurf episode), and used to scour garden catalogs for the closest thing to blue I could find ("Blue Ribbon", a silvery-gray-violet rose, is the closest I had once found). It was like I instinctively sought was did not exist in nature, not yet knowing that it didn't exist. The Unicorn of Flowers. A Blue Rose Bush has always been at the very top of my housewarming list, once I was settled somewhere.
Plus, the dying/dead rose bush out in the back yard, which we cut down to the base in March, has miraculously fought back recently, and is now sporting a 3.5-foot thorny tall stem, stubbornly demanding to be acknowledged, and hinting that it may just make a bud before the end of the year. Its a pink rose, but nonetheless, this spiky stem invaded my brain.
~~~
When I started thinking about blue roses again recently, because colors & flowers were in my brain, I found out 2 pertinent things about them: 1) A true blue roses didn't* actually exist in nature, and because of this, it has been a symbol of unattainable love, or hope for the impossible. From the web:
To some a blue rose symbolizes "mystery" and to others "attaining the impossible". A blue rose given can symbolize the rarity of your partner. You have attained the impossible."
Some people see this as a negative: "Blue roses exist in fantasy but not in nature. The blue rose symbolizes the unattainable or impossible which won't make it a good choice to give someone you would like to maintain a relationship with anyway."
The Chinese see this as hopeful: "According to a Chinese folktale, the blue rose signified hope against unattainable love.
In Victorian times: "Blue roses traditionally signify mystery or attaining the impossible. They are believed to be able to grant the owner youth or grant wishes."
My favorite author uses them, and it seems that totally slipped my mind, but it makes sense that he did: "In the book series A Song of Ice and Fire, blue roses are used to symbolize the character Lyanna Stark." (Go GRRM!)
(And more meanings/interpretations. Here and all over the internet)
~~~
*But in this new Millennium, the meaning of blue roses may yet be altered further, thanks to 2): The first "Blue" roses are being created in Japan, after cracking the genetic code in 2004.
They are not yet on sale overseas, nor are they yet a true blue -- photos show a lavender varietal called Applause, similar to what nature has already given us, but the company claims to still be modifying and working on a true blue for the future.
http://www.suntory.com/news/2009/10592.html
http://www.suntorybluerose.com/
Can modern geneticists do what Mendel and countless botanists over the years have not? I'm not sure yet. We'll see -- it still looks like many natural or grafted lavender roses so far. And is it ethical? Also up for debate. I'd take a GMO flower over a tomato or leg of lamb, but then you get into a slippery slope. But it remains that Suntori has not yet TRULY given the world a blue rose, though they may be the first to make it happen, with a few more years of R&D.
For now though, most florists make roses blue using the same trick we learned in grade school for dyeing celery stalks -- blue dye in water with a white rose. They are fairly stunning. In fact, this florist has one of the best blue rose poems I've seen in my search, by an Irishman (of course):
"Blue roses will blossom in the snow,
Before I ever let you go.
Blue roses will grow up to the sky,
Before I ever make you cry."
Paddy McAloon
~~~
So what does this all mean for my dream interpretation? Who knows. I know it means my conscious brain has leaked in to my unconscious (needing to water the plants, the stem growing in our garden, recent internet research, etc.), then scrambled and rearranged things to give me a wonderful feeling. Other than that, I could choose from any of the countless meanings above. But the emotions I felt in the dream were surprise, awe, deep gratefulness, joy, love, and hope.
They were all different varieties, with different textures and colors -- some were like bush roses, pansy-like, and pale silvery-blue; others were more traditional single-stem roses, with a strong color bleed from bold blue to white from tip to center; some were smaller, bunched together maybe 4-6 in a grouping, tightly clustered like tea roses, and a solid sky blue. The fact that they were all different and so clearly defined is what made the dream so vivid.
The dream didn't come completely out of nowhere -- I've had a thing for blue roses since I was a child (even before the smurf episode), and used to scour garden catalogs for the closest thing to blue I could find ("Blue Ribbon", a silvery-gray-violet rose, is the closest I had once found). It was like I instinctively sought was did not exist in nature, not yet knowing that it didn't exist. The Unicorn of Flowers. A Blue Rose Bush has always been at the very top of my housewarming list, once I was settled somewhere.
Plus, the dying/dead rose bush out in the back yard, which we cut down to the base in March, has miraculously fought back recently, and is now sporting a 3.5-foot thorny tall stem, stubbornly demanding to be acknowledged, and hinting that it may just make a bud before the end of the year. Its a pink rose, but nonetheless, this spiky stem invaded my brain.
~~~
When I started thinking about blue roses again recently, because colors & flowers were in my brain, I found out 2 pertinent things about them: 1) A true blue roses didn't* actually exist in nature, and because of this, it has been a symbol of unattainable love, or hope for the impossible. From the web:
To some a blue rose symbolizes "mystery" and to others "attaining the impossible". A blue rose given can symbolize the rarity of your partner. You have attained the impossible."
Some people see this as a negative: "Blue roses exist in fantasy but not in nature. The blue rose symbolizes the unattainable or impossible which won't make it a good choice to give someone you would like to maintain a relationship with anyway."
The Chinese see this as hopeful: "According to a Chinese folktale, the blue rose signified hope against unattainable love.
In Victorian times: "Blue roses traditionally signify mystery or attaining the impossible. They are believed to be able to grant the owner youth or grant wishes."
My favorite author uses them, and it seems that totally slipped my mind, but it makes sense that he did: "In the book series A Song of Ice and Fire, blue roses are used to symbolize the character Lyanna Stark." (Go GRRM!)
(And more meanings/interpretations. Here and all over the internet)
~~~
*But in this new Millennium, the meaning of blue roses may yet be altered further, thanks to 2): The first "Blue" roses are being created in Japan, after cracking the genetic code in 2004.
They are not yet on sale overseas, nor are they yet a true blue -- photos show a lavender varietal called Applause, similar to what nature has already given us, but the company claims to still be modifying and working on a true blue for the future.
http://www.suntory.com/news/2009/10592.html
http://www.suntorybluerose.com/
Can modern geneticists do what Mendel and countless botanists over the years have not? I'm not sure yet. We'll see -- it still looks like many natural or grafted lavender roses so far. And is it ethical? Also up for debate. I'd take a GMO flower over a tomato or leg of lamb, but then you get into a slippery slope. But it remains that Suntori has not yet TRULY given the world a blue rose, though they may be the first to make it happen, with a few more years of R&D.
For now though, most florists make roses blue using the same trick we learned in grade school for dyeing celery stalks -- blue dye in water with a white rose. They are fairly stunning. In fact, this florist has one of the best blue rose poems I've seen in my search, by an Irishman (of course):
"Blue roses will blossom in the snow,
Before I ever let you go.
Blue roses will grow up to the sky,
Before I ever make you cry."
Paddy McAloon
~~~
So what does this all mean for my dream interpretation? Who knows. I know it means my conscious brain has leaked in to my unconscious (needing to water the plants, the stem growing in our garden, recent internet research, etc.), then scrambled and rearranged things to give me a wonderful feeling. Other than that, I could choose from any of the countless meanings above. But the emotions I felt in the dream were surprise, awe, deep gratefulness, joy, love, and hope.