# Blackred roses: a real variety, or poetic invention?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 14, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245 "2004-03-14T17:09:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245/1 "2004-03-14T17:09:06Z")
e.e. cummings’s tribute to his mother opens with these lines:
> [@](#):
>
> if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have
> one. It will not be a pansy heaven nor
> a fragile heaven of lilies-of-the-valley but
> it will be a heaven of blackred roses
Is there really a variety of rose known as “blackred,” or did cummings invent the term for the poem?
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### Author:  [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2004, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245/2 "2004-03-14T19:21:49Z")
I don’t know if there is a variety called blackred but no true black roses exist. Rose sold as black ones are really a dark maroon rose whose petals tend to get badly scorched by the sun.
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245/3 "2004-03-14T19:33:22Z")
I have a one in my yard with the name Nearly Back. when first opens, it is an extremely dark red, like very old blood. As the bloom opens to full, and ages, it lightens to about the same color as \* Mr Lincoln\*
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245/4 "2004-03-14T19:38:13Z")
Sorry, I meant to put [this](http://www.nurserysite.com/clubs/peninsular/Roses/mister_lincoln.html) in.
I’ll try to find a picture of the Nearly Black too. BRB
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245/5 "2004-03-14T19:47:54Z")
[here](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/3745111/2/ref=br_lpsp_pg/002-3304546-1843247?) is an example of Nearly Black.
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### Author:  [@Willmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Willmore)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245/6 "2004-03-14T21:46:54Z")
I once saw a blue rose.
Ofcourse, it was spray-painted blue, for a wedding, but it was still blue 🙂
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### Author:  [@Silver\_Serpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Serpentine)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2004, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245/7 "2004-03-14T22:05:00Z")
I have a blue rose that I bought in a Central Market in Austin about a year ago.
Apparently, it turned blue because they added blue food coloring to the water it was watered with, or somesuch. The leaves had a bit of a blue tint to them, but the rose itself was BLUE.
Just felt like sharing. Maybe they could do the same kind of thing and make black roses.
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### Author:  [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blackred-roses-a-real-variety-or-poetic-invention/234245/8 "2004-03-15T01:19:04Z")
Poetic invention. IMHO.