Rose Meaning

The Meaning of Black Roses – Black Roses are a Universal Symbol of Loss

As a child, I loved watching, television actress, Carolyn Jones portraying “Morticia Addams” in the “Addams Family Show”. In this macabre TV comedy, it seemed like in every episode Moritcia would “deadhead” or cut the buds off of perfectly good roses and artistically arrange the leftover thorny stems.

Since the show was filmed in black and white, the dark red roses used as props, always appeared jet black on screen. I always thought it would be a great idea to grow “black” roses. But unfortunately, black roses are just a gimmick in the movies because; there are no true black roses in nature.

What rose breeders and enthusiasts refer to as black roses are in reality very dark red roses like the black-red hybrid tea, “Nigrette”, developed in 1933 by German Max Krause.

This rose is also called “The Black Rose of Sangerhausen” since the original plantings are part of the world’s largest rose collection at the Europa-Rosarium, situated in the German town of Sangerhausen. The “Nigrette” rose is still considered to be darkest black rose available today.

These rare dark roses have buds that appear completely black until held up to a light source but these plants are for collectors or breeders only since they have fragile and spindly stalks that have few leaves and requires special care.

But the roses you can buy from your florist are either natural black-red roses or specially treated red roses that were dyed black. But in either case black roses mean death and mourning. Black roses are suitable for funeral arrangements or memorial displays.

Black roses should never be given to the living unless you into Goth, a crime boss or have a very black sense of humor and want a gag gift for Halloween, since black roses stand for permanent loss and saying farewell to this world.

The Meaning of Black Roses

Standing for all things sad and mournful black roses have also come to represent death and loss. Used primarily in memorial or funeral arrangements, black roses can display your heartfelt loss.

Black Roses can mean:

• Loss
• Death
• Mourning
• Farewell
• Passing Over

Once you understand the meaning of black roses, you can use these flowers of darkness to express your most genuine feelings of loss.