I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures
completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
Wild rose, pride of June.
A bud brought home fills my
chamber with fragrance.
June 15, 1853
There is a flower
for every mood of the mind –
wild roses in bloom.
June 25, 1852
Is not this period more than any distinguished for flowers,
when roses, swamp-pinks, morning-glories,
arethusas, pogonias, orchises, blue flags,
epilobiums, mountain laurel, and white lilies
are all in blossom at once?
June 30, 1852
January 30. The hips of the late rose are still abundant and perfect, amid the button-bushes. January 30, 1854
February 10. The drooping corymbs of the late rose hips are completely encased in an icicle, and you see their bright scarlet reflected through the ice in an exaggerated manner. February 10, 1860
February 19. The hips of the late rose though more or less shrivelled, are still red and handsome. It outlasts other hips. February 19, 1854
April 25. The common wild rose to-morrow. April 25, 1855
May 28. Hips of the late rose still hold on under water in some places. May 28, 1854
June 16. The Rosa nitida grows along the edge of the ditches, the half-open flowers showing the deepest rosy tints, so glowing that they make an evening or twilight of the surrounding afternoon, seeming to stand in the shade or twilight. Already the bright petals of yesterday's flowers are thickly strewn along on the black mud at the bottom of the ditch.
June 8. The Rosa nitida bud which I plucked yesterday has blossomed to-day, so that, notwithstanding the rain, I will put it down to to-day. June 8, 1854
June 12. A wild moss rose in Arethusa Meadow, where are arethusas lingering still. June 12, 1853
June 12. With the roses now fairly begun I associate summer heats . . . Rosa lucida, probably yesterday, the 11th, judging from what I saw Saturday, i. e. the 10th. A bud in pitcher the 13th. The R. nitida is the most common now. June 12, 1854
June 13. The smooth wild rose yesterday. June 13, 1853
June 13. Is not the rose-pink Rosa lucida paler than the R. nitida? June 13, 1854
June 13. Is not the rose-pink Rosa lucida paler than the R. nitida? June 13, 1854
June 14. Saw a wild rose from the cars in Weston. The early red roses are out in gardens at home. June 14, 1852
June 15. See the first wild rose to-day on the west side of the railroad causeway. June 15, 1851
June 15. The common, early cultivated red roses are certainly very handsome, so rich a color and so full of blossoms; you see why even blunderers have introduced them into their gardens. June 15, 1852
June 15. Rose-bugs for a day or two . . . Here are many wild roses northeast of Trillium Woods. It is the pride of June. I bring home the buds ready to expand, put them in a pitcher of water, and the next morning they open and fill my chamber with fragrance. June 15, 1853
- The R. nitida, the earlier (?), with its narrow shiny leaves and prickly stem and its moderate-sized rose pink petals.
- The R. lucida, with its broader and duller leaves, but larger and perhaps deeper-colored and more purple petals, perhaps yet higher scented, and its great yellow centre of stamens.
- The smaller, lighter, but perhaps more delicately tinted R. rubiginosa.
One and all drop their petals the second day. I bring home the buds of the three ready to expand at night, and the next day they perfume my chamber. June 16, 1854
June 18. With roses rose bugs have come. June 18, 1852
June 20. The bosky bank shows bright roses from its green recesses . . . Some wild roses, so pale now in the twilight that they look exactly like great blackberry blossoms. I think these would look so at midday. June 20, 1853
June 18. The Rosa lucida is pale and low on dry sunny banks like that by Hosmer's pines. June 18, 1854
June 19. We saw the beautiful wild rose of a deep red color, in blossom, – a rich sight; islands of rose bushes with a profusion of flowers and buds. How suddenly they have expanded! They are first seen in abundance in meadows. Is not this the carnival of the year, when the swamp rose and wild pink are in bloom, the last stage before blueberries come? June 19, 1852
June 20. There seems to be much variety in the Rosa lucida, some to have stouter hooked prickles than the R. Carolina. June 20, 1854
July 5. Rosa Carolina, apparently a day or two, Corner causeway; dull leaves with fine serrations, twenty-five to thirty, plus, on a side, and narrow closed stipules. July 5, 1854
July 8. The Rosa nitida I think has [been] some time done; the lucida generally now ceasing, and the Carolina (?) just begun. July 8, 1854
June 21. I observe a rose (called by some moss rose), with a bristly reddish stem; another, with a smooth red stem and but a few prickles; another, with many prickles and bristles. June 21, 1852
It would be pleasant to write
the history of one hillside for one year --
Blackberries, roses, and dogsbane
now in bloom here.
June 21. Again I am attracted by the deep scarlet of the wild moss rose half open in the grass, all glowing with rosy light. June 21, 1854
June 23. The beauty and fragrance of the wild rose are wholly agreeable and wholesome and wear well, and I do not wonder much that men have given the preference to this family of flowers, notwithstanding their thorns. It is hardy and more complete in its parts than most flowers,– its color, buds, fragrance, leaves, the whole bush, frequently its stem in particular, and finally its red or scarlet hips. Here is the sweet briar in blossom which to a fragrant flower adds more fragrant leaves. I take the wild rose buds to my chamber and put them in a pitcher of water, and they will open there the next day, and a single flower will perfume a room ;and then, after a day, the petals drop off, and new buds open. June 23, 1852
June 25. There is a flower for every mood of the mind. Methinks roses oftenest display their high colors, colors which invariably attract all eyes and betray them, against a dark ground, as the dark green or the shady recesses of the bushes and copses, where they show to best advantage . . . The color shows fairest and brightest in the bud. The expanded flower has no higher or deeper tint than the swelling bud exposed. This raised a dangerous expectation. The season when wild roses are in bloom should have some preeminence, methinks. June 25, 1852
June 26. We now have roses on the land and lilies on the water, -- both land and water have done their best, -- just after the longest day. Nature says, "You be hold the utmost I can do."And the young women carry their finest roses on the other hand. Roses and lilies. The floral days. The red rose, with the intense color of many suns concentrated, spreads its tender petals perfectly fair, its flower not to be overlooked, modest yet queenly, on the edges of shady copses and meadows against its green leaves surrounded by blushing buds of perfect form, not only beautiful but right fully commanding attention unspoiled by the admiration of gazers. And the water lily floats on the smooth surface of slow waters amid rounded shields of leaves bucklers red beneath which simulate a green field perfuming the air. Each instantly the prey of the spoiler the rose bug and water insects. How transitory the perfect beauty of the rose and lily. The highest intensest color belongs to the land the purest perchance to the water. The lily is perhaps the only. June 26, 1852
June 30. Swamp rose, fugacious-petalled. June 30, 1851
June 30. Is not this period more than any distinguished for flowers, when roses, swamp-pinks, morning-glories, arethusas, pogonias, orchises, blue flags, epilobiums, mountain laurel, and white lilies are all in blossom at once? June 30, 1852
July 1. Roses are in their prime now, growing amid huckle-berry bushes, ferns, and sweet-ferns, especially about some dry pond-hole; some paler, some more red. July 1, 1852
July 4. The Rosa nitida appears to be now out of bloom. July 4, 1852
July 8. The Rosa nitida I think has [been] some time done; the lucida generally now ceasing, and the Carolina (?) just begun. July 8, 1854
July 11. The Rosa lucida still common. July 11, 1854
July 11. Patches of shrub oaks, bay berry, beach plum, and early wild roses, overrun with woodbine. What a splendid show of wild roses, whose sweetness is mingled with the aroma of the bayberry! ! July 11, 1855
July 14. I see a rose, now in its prime, by the river, in the water amid the willows and button-bushes, while others, lower on shore, are nearly out of bloom. July 14, 1853
July 16. The wild rose peeps from amid the alders and other shrubs by the roadside. July 16, 1851
July 17. Swamp-pink lingers still. Roses are not so numerous as they were. July 17, 1852
July 17. The late rose not fairly begun along the river, now when lucida is leaving off. July 17, 1854
July 18. The late, or river, rose spots the copses over the water, — a great ornament to the river's brink now. July 18, 1853
July 18. Rosa Carolina, some time, at edge of Wheeler meadow near Island Neck. July 18, 1856.
July 19. . The swamp-pink still fills the air with its perfume in swamps and by the cause ways, though it is far gone. The wild rose still scatters its petals over the leaves of neighboring plants. July 19, 1851
July 22. The early roses are now about done. July 22, 1853
July 23. [At Moosehead Lake] Landing on the east side, four or five miles north of Kineo, I noticed roses (R. nitida) in bloom. July 23, 1857
July 23. The late rose is now in prime along the river, a pale rose-color but very delicate, keeping up the memory of roses. July 23, 1860
July 24 . The late rose, -- R. Carolina, swamp rose,-- I think has larger and longer leaves; at any rate they are duller above (light beneath). and the bushes higher. July 24, 1853
July 26. Saw one of the common wild roses (R. lucida?). July 26, 1853
August 4. See a late rose still in flower. August 4, 1854
August 5. . . . a few late roses. August 5, 1854
August 5. The late rose is still conspicuous, in clumps advanced into the meadow here and there . . . The rose, which grows along with the willows and button-bushes, has a late and rare look now. August 5, 1858
August 14. Saw a rose still. August 14, 1852
September 4. Rose hips generally beginning. Septmber 4, 1853
September 7. Common rose hips as handsome as ever. September 7, 1860
September 8 Roses, apparently R. lucida, abundantly out on a warm bank on Great Fields by Moore's Swamp, with Viola pedata. September 8, 1853
September 25. A rose again, apparently lucida (?). This is always unexpected. September 25, 1852
September 28. This is the commencement, then, of the second spring. Violets, Potentilla Canadensis, lambkill, wild rose, yellow lily, etc., etc., begin again September 28, 1852
November 11. The hips of the late rose still show abundantly along the shore. November 11, 1853
December 14. I walk on Loring's Pond to three or four islands there which I have never visited, not having a boat in the summer . . . On those unfrequented islands, too, I notice. . . in one place in the meadow the greatest quantity of wild rose hips of various forms that I ever saw, now slightly withered; they are as thick as winterberries. December 14, 1850
See also:
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Reminiscence and Prompting
Late rose now in prime.
the memory of roses
along the river.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2023
https://tinyurl.com/HDTwildrose
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