Q is for ...... Quintessentially English.

The Rose. See > even rosier here <

The national flower of England.

White rose for Yorkshire (House of York) notice I put this before Lancashire being a Yorkshire lass!.

Red rose for Lancashire (House of Lancaster).

It is, in various forms, the state flower of Georgia, Iowa, New York and North Dakota in the USA.

Portland, Oregon is sometimes called The City of Roses.

"The White Rose" was a WWII underground non-violent resistance group in Germany.

An ancient symbol of love and beauty.

Greeks and Romans identified the rose with Aphrodite and Venus respectively.

The legal term "sub rosa" derives from the practice (in ancient Rome) of placing a wild rose on the door of a room where confidential matters were being discussed - ie. "under the rose" meant keeping matters secret.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - a quote from William Shakespeare's 'Romeo & Juliet' written around the end of the 1500's.

Over 100 species (with most native to Asia surprisingly).

Painted in different styles by (amongst others) - Monet, Renoir, Cezanne and Fantin-Latour.

There are rose varieties named after a number of famous people - Grace Kelly (Princesse de Monaco), Abraham Lincoln, Bing Crosby, Mozart, Paul McCartney, Ingrid Bergman, William Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Dolly Parton, Elizabeth Taylor ....... to name but a few.

Here endeth your rose lesson for today and this is my 'Q' for the AlphaPonty A-Z Challenge Week 17 (once again using my home 'studio' - kitchen under-unit lights, black cloth and a variety of objects to keep the rose in place - 18-105 lens, handheld)

NIKON D90 : f/5.3 : 1/25" : 66mm : EV -1.0