If you want to add a spiritual touch to your garden, why not plant the beautiful Cistercian Rose? The very name is synonymous with deep meditation and monastic charm. Yet there is nothing monastic about this variety of rose with its shimmering colors, from yellow to pink to orange, and its wavy petals.
Created by the nurseryman Delbard in 1998, the Cistercian Rose comes from a very old rose tree. The flower was created to commemorate the ninth centenary of the foundation of the abbey of Cîteaux, founded by Robert de Molesme in 1098. From one Cistercian abbey to another, the Cistercian Rose has been planted at the Abbey of Fontfroide, in the Aude region. In the ground or potted, it requires a sunny exposure, and it blooms from May until the first frosts. It is hearty and withstands cold winters and disease.
Roses and Saint Thérèse
The rose has a very special place for Christians. Saint Therese drew many of her insights from it.
For the young Carmelite nun, the rose is the symbol of the soul that sacrifices itself, that does everything for love, and that is consumed by love for Jesus. It wants to strip off its leaves completely for Christ, to go to the end of the gift of self, of sacrifice. But above all, this flower symbolizes the graces that Thérèse wants to rain down once she is in heaven. A few months before her death, she promised to “make it rain roses” on earth.
