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Why Do We Breed Roses?
Ed Cunningham
So, why do people breed roses anyway ? For lots of reasons. In our
experience, most people's reasons are an amalgam of reasons such as:
to earn a living; to carry on a family business; for a hobby; out of
appreciation of the rose's beauty and/or fragrance; for the thrill of
the chase, trying to conceive what potential rose might come out of a
union of 2 roses, and to then try to "pull it" out of their union,
much as a sculptor "pulls" a statue out of a lump of stone; for an
intellectual challenge, to employ genetics in an attempt to "engineer"
a desired rose; from of a spirit of play, to whimsically join 2 roses
and to unreservedly delight in what discoveries might issue forth.
Last year, I attended RIRS' morning workshop on Ikebana-style
arrangements, taught by Mrs. Donna Fuss. I found the simple elegance
of the Ikebana style to be congenial, and an interest in it has slowly
grown since then. I began to wonder what might be distinctive about
roses bred by Japanese breeders. Considering their other industrial &
cultural achievements, I had high expectations. But, due to
constraints imposed by my life responsibilities, this had to be a
survey, not a serious inquiry. It was therefore disappointing to find
not so very much about them. Certainly, there are a good number of
Japanese breeders and nurseries, including the Keisei Rose Research
Institute and the Itami Rose Nursery. Seizo Suzuki (at Keisei) is a
very prominent Japanese breeder, whose more familiar roses include:
French Perfume, Gipsy Carnival, Kuroshinju (a black-red HT which we
fell in love with at the Montreal rose show a few years ago), Mikado,
and Pi¤ata. Other familiar Japanese bred roses include 'Nozomi,'
Todoroki, Prima Donna, and Ferdy. But all this fell short of what I
expected of this major culture.
My continuing interest in Ikebana has sort of nudged together various
ideas which I have encountered in the meanderings of my life. When I
was younger, I took some classes in Karate, and later in Aikido (which
I much preferred); and some of the culture "rubbed off." Later, I took
acupuncture treatments for a while, and a little more of the culture
rubbed off.
For years, I enjoyed the TV program "Kung Fu" (with "Little
Grasshopper"), and a little more of the culture rubbed off (filtered
thru Hollywood, of course).
In pondering my surprisingly scanty findings on Japanese rose
breeders, some ideas have presented themselves. Perhaps, the Japanese
are more interested in the peony, the lotus, & other flowers. Perhaps,
their interest only extends to using species roses such as Multiflora
for Bonsai.
These may be accurate ideas, but I believe that there is more. I
suspect that for many Japanese whose hearts are drawn to working with
the beauty of flowers, a cultural sensitivity to the spiritual or
metaphysical aspect of the endeavor helps to guide their approach.
One of the most prominent contemporary Ikebana masters wrote "Through
the act of arranging flowers, one can realize Gods' blessing that
pervades all the universe, and will be given eyes to see his own road
to life." Senei Ikenobo, March 1962 (From www.ramalila.net/Adventures/ZenArts/Ikebana.html)
Ruth Grosser, teaches Ikebana at an AIC University in Australia. On
her website (http://www.ikebana.com.au/ruth/), she expresses some of
this:
"Her style has become a synthesis of the traditional ..(and).. modern
(Japanese) combined with her own Artistic Sense; based on the Western
Arts of Painting, Sculpture and Colour Design. Her message in Ikebana
is that all arrangements should have a sense of beauty." "We have a
choice between the ugly and beautiful, the confined and the free; We
can choose the path to develop a sense of beauty in our lives or we
can do the opposite." " There are many artists in all the various
forms of art who have chosen the opposite in these times as a means to
shock and develop notoriety, their base works are made for 'news' and
for 'business advertising' ........they are not true art". "In Ikebana
we have the materials to develop great works that are capable of
lifting the human spirit and the process of constructing Ikebana
allows us to be one with nature, to focus, to relax and renew the
positive senses of our humanity". These sentiments are not necessarily
foremost in the minds of many Western hybridists, especially the
commercial ones.
Ruth Grosser's site also had an unattributed quote: "Ikebana has
influenced many artists. The Samurai and Zen Masters discovered the
essence. Your mind and body are relaxed. The whole self is centered on
the art." This quote prompted me to dig up a flyer I had obtained many
years ago. It relates a true incident from Japanese history. As a
young man, Morihei Uyeshiba, saw his father beaten up by political
thugs. He consequently committed himself to "Budo." Loosely
translated, this refers to the way of the warrior, the Samurai, and
martial arts. He spent years in mastering these pursuits, but he never
felt fulfilled. Eventually, he had what Abraham Maslow would call a
"peak experience." Uyeshiba later recalled:
"I was able to understand the whispering of the birds, and was clearly
aware of the mind of God, the Creator of this universe. At that
moment, I was enlightened: the source of Budo is God's love - the
spirit of loving protection for all beings. Tears of joy streamed down
my cheeks.
Since that time I have grown to feel that the whole earth is my house,
and the sun, the moon, and the stars are all my own things. I had
become free from all desire, not only for position, fame, and
property, but also to be strong. I understood: Budo is not felling the
opponent by our force; nor is it a tool to lead the world into
destruction with arms. True Budo is to accept the spirit of the
universe; keep the peace of the world; correctly produce, protect, and
cultivate all beings in Nature. I understood: the training of Budo is
to take God's love, which correctly produces, protects, and cultivates
all things in Nature, and assimilate and utilize it in our own mind
and body." Morehei Uyeshiba was the founder of Aikido; and, he often
said that "Budo and farming are one."
Nothing in the Human experience, no insight or sensibility, is
exclusive to any one group or culture. I remember reading of an old
American priest who, in his zen-like wisdom, observed that, "birds do
not fly because they have wings; they have wings because they fly."
Nonetheless, different things do tend to be emphasized in different
groups or cultures.
And so, I am left to wonder: Why have the Japanese gifted us with
proportionally fewer famous roses than we might have expected ? I am
sure that they have "kept their eyes on the prize."
Is it because they had a different prize ? Is their prize to seek out
such things as harmony, unity, and the "true nature" of the rose,
rather than to seek our prize of novelty, distinctiveness, long
straight stems, and commercial success ?
This article, reprinted from the Rhode Island
Rose Review,
won an ARS Award of merit for 2003 |
