The Rose is born...

This beautiful video is found on YouTube. Thanks to the user rulivede who has shared it there.

Everyone who has ever touched, seen or smelled a rose understands the divine nature of this flower. According to the Ancient Greek and Roman Myths the Rose was created by Chloris (Roman name Flora), the Goddess of spring, new growth and flowers, the wife of Western Wind Zephyrus. Once she was walking through her garden and suddenly came upon a lifeless corps of a beautiful nymph. Deeply touched by her beauty she decided to preserve it by turning the nymph into a flower. Chloris implored Aphrodite (Roman name Venus), the Goddess of Love and Beauty, for assistance. The Three Graces gave her allure, brilliance and elation. Dyonissus (Roman name Bacchus) gave her a drop of nectar to endue her with a wonderful fragrance. Zephyrus, the Western Wind blew the clouds away so that Apollo, the God of Sun could shine upon her. A beautiful rose came to blossom under the golden light of Apollo and was crowned with a diadem by Chloris to distinguish this most beautiful blossom, the Queen of Flowers.

Persians also recognized the divine origin of the Rose and believed it was a gift from Allah himself. From the times of Ancient Egypt Lotus was the King of the flowers. But he slept a lot neglecting his royal duties. All the flowers were complaining to Allah about this habit and asked to name another blossom for this position. The White Virgin Rose became the new Queen of Flowers. And to protect her Allah gave her the thorns.

Turkish legends have a different view on the origin of the Rose and believe that White Rose was born from the sweat drops of Mohammed during his night ascend of the sky.

The emergence of the Red rose in legends and myths are connected to the stories of pain, suffer and love.

Ancient Greek myths tell us that it was the blood of Aphrodite who turned the Roses red.

Persian legend says that the White Rose created by Allah was so beautiful that the nightingale felt in love to her from the first sight. Charmed by its beauty the nightingale embraced the flower so tightly that the thorns stabbed his heart and colored the rose petals with his blood. A beautiful Fairytale “The Nightingale and The Rose” is written by Oscar Wilde.

Well, if those stories of Red Rose made you a little sad, there is another version you might like. It says that Rose was presented to Eros (Roman name Cupid), the winged God of Love, by his mother Aphrodite. Being a playful child he spilled some wine on it and turned the Rose petals red.

And at the end I would reveal one more secret of this beautiful flower. Eros presented the Rose to Harpocrates, the Greek and Roman God of Secrecy and Silence. It was a bribe for not telling to Aphrodite, his mother, about the pranks of little troublemaker Eros. So the Rose became a symbol for confidentiality. And Romans believed that everything said under the Rose should remain a secret. Red roses often ornamented the houses also reminding the guests that everything said “sub vino” (under the influence of wine) is also said “sub rosa” (under the roses that means should be kept secret).

Fougère II - the legend

Russian version - click here

Image: the picture of Fougère Royale for this collage is granted by palomka

Coumarin, the main ingredient of the Tonka beans with the slightly bitter sweet odour was synthesised by Perkin in 1869 and put on market as one of the first aromachemicals in 1877 by Tiemann and Hersfeld in Germany.

Paul Parquet (joint owner of Houbigant) has used the new aromachemical to create his new perfume with imaginary smell of fern that he named Fougère Royale (the Royal Fern). This perfume had such a great success, that it was not only widely copied, but also gave a name for the whole olfactory group – the fougères. The original perfume has not survived unfortunately. It has been re-issued (and obviously reformulated) in 1959, but can’t be found now days.

What did it smell like? The Hoffmann’s book Die Moderne Parfumerie (1912) contains the formula of fougère. It’s not clear if it was original Fougère Royale or its olfactory copy. According to this formula fougère consists of infusions of rose, jasmine and orange flowers together with neroli and lavender oil, tincture of oakmoss with vetiver oil, benzoin and musk infusions and two aromachemicals – coumarine and… geranyl formate. It’s funny to notice that it consists mostly from the natural ingredients. I don’t know much about geranyl formate, but according to description it’s a chemical with a dry and fruity green-rosy odour and for a natural perfumer could be probably substituted by a combination of geranium oil with bergamot, rose and neroli (a very small quantity or ginger oil could give it a finishing touch).

It’s funny to mentione, that Fougère Royale was neither a unique accord nor a unique name. In 1873 Yardley released English lavender – a perfume based on the similar notes (Tonka bean instead of coumarin together with lavernder, oakmoss, herbs etc.) In 1877 Geo F Trumper created Wild Fern based on the oakmoss accord. What was it that made Fougère Royale the ancestor of the fougère family?

It looks like the previous fern scents were made to perfume the soap and bath products mostly – a lot of fougéres have the clean soapy note. Houbigant was the first who made an individual perfume based on a fern scent. May be that is why he called it “royal” – to emphasize it worth to be a perfume.

It also looks that all the legends around the fern promising magic powers were the engine for the perfumer trying to reconstruct the fern scent. As if they could catch the magical essence into a perfume bottle. Who knows. Fern has enough magic power to inspire the whole perfumery industry with the scent he even doesn’t posses…