Generations have sought that unattainable mystical creature, the perfect rose: shapely, dark red and sweetly scented. What is it about this flower that holds us so in thrall, and why are roses associated with love? Charles Quest-Ritson finds out.
Roses are the world’s most popular flower. And they were among the first to undergo domestication, both in China and in the Middle East — the famous Fertile Crescent that was the cradle of settled civilisation as we know…
