The Wars of the Roses and the Tudor Rose
The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487) were a series of civil wars for the English throne fought between two branches of the House of Plantagenet — the House of Lancaster (whose symbol was a red rose) and the House of York (a white rose). When Henry Tudor (Lancaster) defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and married Elizabeth of York, the two houses were united. The Tudor Rose — combining red and white — was created as a political symbol of this union and has been used as the emblem of England ever since.
The rose in English culture
England's association with the rose extends far beyond heraldry. The Wars of the Roses gave Shakespeare two of his history plays. The red rose became the symbol of the Labour Party. The English rose became a byword for a particular kind of fair-skinned feminine beauty. The "English rose" garden style — combining old roses, cottage perennials and informal planting — is one of the most influential garden movements in the world, associated above all with the designer Gertrude Jekyll. Yorkshire and Lancashire still wear their respective white and red roses as county emblems.
Growing English roses in the UK
England has one of the world's great rose-growing traditions and the UK climate — cool, moist, with long summer days — is genuinely ideal for rose cultivation. David Austin's English Roses (bred since the 1960s in Shropshire) combine the full, fragrant blooms of old roses with the repeat-flowering of modern hybrids and are among the finest roses in the world. For the true historical connection, plant Rosa gallica var. officinalis (the Red Rose of Lancaster) or Rosa × alba (the White Rose of York) — both are available from specialist rose nurseries and will flower reliably for decades.
The UK's four national flowers
Each of the UK's four nations has its own floral emblem: England's rose, Scotland's thistle, Wales's daffodil, and Northern Ireland's shamrock (or flax, depending on the context). Together these four flowers appear on the Royal Coat of Arms and in the patterning of various royal and parliamentary symbols. The rose used in UK national symbolism is generally a stylised five-petalled heraldic rose rather than a specific cultivar — but the wild Dog Rose (Rosa canina), native to British hedgerows, is often cited as the botanical ancestor of the English rose tradition.