ShareThisEach year on the 12th day of the 12th month, all of Mexico brings out the roses. They are cut and arranged on little shrines at home and in the marketplace -- wherever people gather and spend time. The roses are gathered before the ancient female icon of Latin America, the image of Mary said to have been miraculously imprinted on a fragile cloak "tilma" of agave fiber cloth worn by St. Juan Diego over 400 years ago.
The story of this tilma is one that galvanized Mexico in the wake of the conquest because it is a legend of flowers, which were central in the culture of the Aztecs. Theirs was a civilization that held blooms in highest esteem, offering them to the pre-Columbian gods in abundance.
When the Shining Lady purportedly appeared to Juan Diego on Tepeyac hill, above what is today Mexico City, she directed him to pick roses growing out of season in the winter and deliver them to the bishop as a sign to build a church on that spot. When he delivered the flowers, the story goes, they fell out of the cloth to reveal the miraculous image for the first time. That very same tilma hangs in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and is a site of pilgrimage.
These were Spanish roses, flowers known well in Spain but little seen in the New World. The reported miracle was twofold: rare European flowers blooming in the depths of winter, and a strange female image inexplicably burned onto the cloth. The woman became the maternal figure of all the peoples of Mexico, promising she would hear their prayers and protect them.
Visit any Roman Catholic church in Latino immigrant communities in the United States on this day and you will find the Guadalupan altars overflowing with roses. Red is the most popular color because it was the same hue as the rose of Castile, one of the old Spanish species. Red roses also evoke the blood of human sacrifices of the Aztecs, believed to feed the sun into rising and the rain into falling.
Garden shrines to Our Lady of Guadalupe are the ideal way to link roses and spirituality, particularly that which is distinctly Mexican. Fortunately, today's plants don't ask for all the care that the older hybrid teas once did, so it's easy to create a beautiful shrine as the focal point of a garden.
Flower Carpet Red
This low-spreading plant was developed to behave more as a shrub in the garden than as a traditional rose. Silver-dollar-sized blossoms are blood red with a cluster of bright golden stamens in the center. These plants are known as self-cleaning, which means they don't need to be pruned after each flower fades. These will simply shed their petals and go on producing fresh buds. Look to these roses to begin blooming in spring and continue nonstop until the first frost of fall. They are low and wide, growing to just 2 feet tall and spreading out to 4 feet in diameter.
Knock Out Red
The Knock Out rose is more upstanding, to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide topped with a dense crop of bright red double roses suitable for cutting. These offer a different form than the Flower Carpet, with more options for design. Knock Out roses bloom continuously all season without pruning, so you won't have any additional maintenance. They make a fine background or may flank a focal point with delicious color.
Both Flower Carpet and Knock Out roses are revolutionary due to their disease resistance and tolerance of humidity. In the past, most maintenance tasks were centered on controlling diseases such as mildew, black spot and rust. These new hybrids are highly resistant to all three, provided they are located in full sun where there is plenty of air circulation.
For those seeking the ideal focal point for a Spanish-style garden, or others who share a devotion to this spiritual mother of Mexico, think red and remember the roses.
(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and former host of "Weekend Gardening" on DIY Network. Her blog, the MoZone, offers great ideas for cash-strapped families. Read the blog at www.MoPlants.com/blog. E-mail her at mogilmer(at)yahoo.com.)
YARDSMART
