The Rose
Roses are one of the most popular garden shrubs and are also
among the most common flowers sold by florists. Roses are of great
economic importance both as a crop for florists' use and for use in
perfume.
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Many thousands of rose hybrids and cultivars have been bred and
selected for garden use, mostly double-flowered with many or all of
the stamens mutated into additional petals. Twentieth-century rose
breeders generally emphasized size and color, producing large,
attractive blooms with little or no scent. Many wild and
"old-fashioned" roses, by contrast, have a strong sweet scent.
Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. The rose was
sacred to a number of goddesses, and is often used as a symbol of
the Virgin Mary. Roses are so important that the word means pink or
red in a variety of languages (such as the Romance languages,
Greek, and Polish).
A red rose (often held in a hand) is also a symbol of socialism
or social democracy; it is also used as a symbol by the United
Kingdom Labour Party, as well as by the French, Spanish (Spanish
Socialist Workers' Party), Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish,
Finnish, Brazilian, Dutch (Partij van de Arbeid) and European
socialist parties. This originates from the red rose being used as
a badge by the marchers in the May 1968 street protests in
Paris.
The Eglantine Rose
Dating back as far as 1551, the eglantine (or sweetbrier) rose
(Rosa eglanteria, syn. R. rubiginosa) is a wonderful rose that is
rarely seen these days in commerce. It forms a small, compact,
vigorous bush that is almost continuously in bloom. The blooms are
single, and dark pink, bordering on purple, with prominent white
eyes that set off the golden stamens.
It is native to Britain and northern Europe. In addition to its
beautiful pink flowers, it is valued for the strong apple-like
fragrance of its foliage and the hips that form after the flowers
and persist well into the winter. The stems are armed with numerous
sharp hooked thorns.
It is a carefree wild rose that reproduces true from seed.
Although there are thousands of hybrid roses, there are only a few
hundred species of wild roses, and most are very vigorous.
"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine."
--Shakespeare, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
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Eglantine hips |
The Cache
The cache is located to the north of Tower Hill Pond. The area
is full of caches, once can spend a wonderful afternoon
circumnavigating the pond, on bike, foot, horseback, or even
snowmobiles in the winter.
I've given the closest parking coordinates but you can park
anywhere around Tower Hill Pond if you are walking around the
entire pond.
The cache is an 8 cup Lock and Lock just about 20 yards off the
path. However, and this is a big however, the last 5 yards can be
exciting. Please don't attempt this one at night if you are by
yourself. There is a moderate amount of climbing that needs to be
done, nothing hard, you don't even need your hands, but be
careful.
This cache was done to support
Bread and Roses 3 and is slightly harder than the other Bread
and Roses 'rose' caches.
Note: Early logs will be deleted.