I see you in the garden
Your scent does fill the air
Just like a precious flower
A rose, so ever fair.
(Marilyn Ferguson, verse from Gone, But Not Forgotten )
There is an allure in the exquisite vulnerability of a rose that has drawn lovers and poets to her for centuries.
Her honeyed yet musky fragrance, sensuous and complex, stops you cold. You approach her delicate petals and reach out in eager anticipation to draw her to your face. And just as your fingers close in on her trembling stem you hesitate. Will her piercing thorns draw blood? An obstacle on the path to perfection.
But oh how sweetly she beckons!
Sub rosa, “under the rose” – demands a secrecy and silence befitting her, the union of opposites.
Yellow Roses in Vienna’s Volksgarten.
Her aphrodisiac scent lifts your spirits. Yet wont in her ways, as you inhale, you reminisce all the while longing for the her still to come. Never one and the same. Subtle yet bold. She heeds no demands.
And you? You indulge her changing moods.
Constant only in her transiency.
You leave her. And return. And she is gone.
So be sure to catch her while you can – patiently waiting — 4000 bushes and 800 long stemmed roses. All blooming NOW in Vienna’s Volksgarten.
Roses in Volksgarten – Vienna, Austria
And what better way to say, “I love you” than by sponsoring one of these lovelies? Five years will make your wallet 350 € poorer (but you can justify this a bit by telling yourself, that’s merely 70 € a year) you’ll be poor with a rich heart! (But wait! There’s more!) Sponsor one of these beauties and you can also give reign to the Erich Fried in you bursting to get out by scripting a poem for your dedication plaque. Don’t miss these romantic declarations while you are chilling on a chair in the park, soaking up the sun and engaging in pure sensory euphoria.
“What good does it do me, that I save some things from my journeys for you, some wonderful, that I received, and that slipped away– I do not want to save roses for you, I want them young, in your young hair, and when I again travel to the spring, I want you there….”
Rose Sponsorship
If not for love, then maybe a certificate? Rose sponsors receive a sponsorship certificate from the Austrian Federal Gardens which, if you are so inclined, you can display behind your desk next to your elementary school spelling bee runner up award and your junior high school science fair honorable mention metal. Contrary to the US, Austria is a country where trophies are a rare commodity — you only get one if you actually deserve it. This might entail feats such as racing down an icy slope at neck-breaking speed or proving to the world via song, high heels and beard, that njet! You are not a display of “blatant propaganda of homosexuality and spiritual decay.”
They get awards here. And you can too if you would just sponsor a rose, already.
Convinced? If so, contact the Garten Meister Lady (didn’t want to translate that title and take the Meister out of her titleship – who I am to demote a “Meister”?):
Gärtnermeisterin Michaela Rathbauer, Volksgarten
cell phone number: + 43 664 819 83 27, or per email: volksgarten@bundesgaerten.at
| Meaning of a rose’s color |
red: passion, energy
white: purity, innocence, protest
yellow: compassion, humanity |
pink: friendship, thankfulness
orange: enthusiasm, optimism
black (non-existent in nature) – death, depression and loss. |
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 “Dearest Woman of my Dreams, Thank you for the magical steps through this garden and for your music, which you can really make me feel. You give me a special life. I wish for you to be happy and need nothing more for myself but your smile. All my love, your Charles” |
 “It is what it is” poem from Erich Fried dedicated to a loved one on a rose bush in Vienna’s Volksgarten |
 “My Lioness, who has a heart like a mountain mine, and is always true. For my Silvia, my doll.” |
