by Violet Rebecca Jones
A friend of mine bought a cutting of a plant descended from the original Confederate Rose that grew by the Abbeville, SC house where the Civil War actually began and finally ended ( after the surrender at Appomatox, VA). I am anxious to see the "rose" bloom this summer, but it got me to thinking about the legend of this beautiful flower and how it reflects Southern history.
Although it is not really a rose, but rather a hibiscus, no true Southerner would ever admit that. Legend has it that a wounded Confederate soldier bled upon a white rose for two days and turned its blossoms to red, or dark pink, with his blood before dying. The Confederate Rose first blooms white, then over a period of two days gradually turns a dark pink before wilting.
It is also said the women of Alabama gave Confederate Roses to the returning soldiers after the Civil War to show their appreciation and welcome them home.
The rose grew on the lawn of the house in Abbeville, SC where the first decision to secede from the Union was formulated prior to the shots at Ft. Sumter, and where Jefferson Davis signed the final paperwork officially ending the war while on his escape from fallen Richmond, VA.
It is sometimes called a Cotton Flower or Cotton Rose because its flowers and buds resemble the cotton plant, also forever connected to the South and a Southern girl's memories of picking cotton on her grandfather's farm.
A friend of mine bought a cutting of a plant descended from the original Confederate Rose that grew by the Abbeville, SC house where the Civil War actually began and finally ended ( after the surrender at Appomatox, VA). I am anxious to see the "rose" bloom this summer, but it got me to thinking about the legend of this beautiful flower and how it reflects Southern history.
Although it is not really a rose, but rather a hibiscus, no true Southerner would ever admit that. Legend has it that a wounded Confederate soldier bled upon a white rose for two days and turned its blossoms to red, or dark pink, with his blood before dying. The Confederate Rose first blooms white, then over a period of two days gradually turns a dark pink before wilting.
It is also said the women of Alabama gave Confederate Roses to the returning soldiers after the Civil War to show their appreciation and welcome them home.
The rose grew on the lawn of the house in Abbeville, SC where the first decision to secede from the Union was formulated prior to the shots at Ft. Sumter, and where Jefferson Davis signed the final paperwork officially ending the war while on his escape from fallen Richmond, VA.
It is sometimes called a Cotton Flower or Cotton Rose because its flowers and buds resemble the cotton plant, also forever connected to the South and a Southern girl's memories of picking cotton on her grandfather's farm.
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| By Taken by Fanghong (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons |
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