Roses have an irresistible combination of elegance and charm, thorny strength and satin petaled delicacy. Their blooms come forth in a wonderful variety of colours, shapes, sizes and fragrances. The sensuous appeal of roses has made them the world's best-known and most popular ornamental plant. Roses require a certain amount of pampering, they make such unique demands on a gardener that growing them may be beyond their ability. However, remember that roses were growing long before humans tended to their needs. The rose's close relatives include not only strawberries and raspberries, but such fruits as the peach, apple and apricot.In spite of the superficial differences among them, there are traits that connect them, such as blossoms that generally have petals in sets of five. Many bear edible fruit, and the rose is no exception. After a blossom's petals drop off they leave behind a small, round usually red "hip." It is the raw material for rose-hip-jelly, an old fashioned favourite in England and New England--and is also an excellent source of Vitamin C. There are about 5,000 varieties of roses now available and 15,000 identifiable varieties. There are roses for formal and informal plantings, for landscaping effects and for ensuring privacy, for keeping the garden bright with colour and for keeping the home liberally stocked with cut flowers.And last but not least, Roses are the flower of romance. The best place to grow roses is in full sunshine, for plants grown in the sun produce more flowers faster, and the bushes are apt to be sturdier. It is said that roses will grow in practically any soil. The truth of the matter is that roses can but the soil might have to be mofified depending where you live. They do best in soil that is very slightly acid. Between the sophisticated hybrid teas and their wild ancestors...some of which are still grown in gardens.. are a host of other, less well-known roses. Among them is to be found virtually every characteristic that it is possible to breed into a flower. Sweetly scented or odourless, large or small, prickly or smooth, delicately coloured or dazzling in intensity, all roses share a common ancestral trait---a distinctive and memorable beauty that has earned for them the place of honour in the gardens of millions of flower lovers throughout the world.