Wild Rose

A painting of a beautiful and fragrant wild rose. Acrylics and coloured pencil on paper – 24 x 32 cm

£350.00

I’m calling this painting ‘Wild Rose’ – I painted it a while back and didn’t consider identifying it. It’s probably the Dog Rose (Rosa canina) or the Sweetbriar (Rosa rubiginosa). Both have scented leaves and a degree of variability. Both are rich in vitamins and antioxidants – I was regularly dosed with rosehip syrup as a child.

“… a wild rose blooming at the edge”

I am attracted to plants that many people hate. I go into some of the reasons for this in the notes for my painting of Himalayan Balsam. Anyone from the UK might be surprised that the Wild Rose might be hated – surely, as the subject of countless poems and lyrics, it is unassailable. Also, here’s Shakespeare:

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:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act 2, Scene 1

Invasion of the wild rose

Eglantine was the name for both the Dog Rose and Sweetbriar in Shakespeare’s time. Surprisingly, the former is an invasive species in New Zealand and a ‘declared weed’ in Australia and parts of the USA. The latter rose is a declared weed in South Africa, restricted in New Zealand, and invasive in parts of Australia and most of Argentine Patagonia. Of course, these problems came about because of human hubris and stupidity. In the UK, wild roses are victim to aphids, mites, gall wasps, sawflies, scale insects, leaf-cutting bees, leafhoppers, mildew, rust, fungus, and rabbits and deer – all keeping it in check.

You might also be interested in this painting of Sour Fig or this peony. Or maybe the humble (but beautiful) Bindweed.