The rose family includes around 150 species including shrubs and climbing varieties grown for the beauty of their flowers, which at times are scented. There are also ornamental roses bearing accessory fruit (rose hips) or even thorns. Only a small group of these species has given rise to the thousands of varieties currently grown: these include botanical (or wild) roses and old garden roses, characterized by simple flowers with five petals like, for example, the Rosa canina (dog-rose) or the Rosa pimpinellifolia (burnet rose), or flowers with many scented petals like the Rosa damascena (Turkish rose) and the Rosa gallica (French rose), whose origins are quite remote and was certainly a species that prevailed until the late Middle Ages.
In the Medieval Botanical Garden there are also roses that have made history, created to embellish aristocratic gardens, palaces, and residences and today found across the world, and so alongside the Rosa gallica conditorum (Ancient Gallica rose), which has existed since ancient Roman times, we also find the “Ballerina” rose and the “Félicité et Perpétue” rose or even the Provence rose so dear to Giuseppina Bonaparte in her garden at Malmaison.
