The rose has been celebrated in the art, music, literature, and religions of numerous civilizations since ancient times, and garden roses were cultivated by Egyptians as early as 4000 BC. Today roses are grown commercially and in home gardens, and hybrids are developed with much planning and great care. The genus Rosa, comprising 150 species as
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well as numerous hybrids and cultivars, belongs to the family Rosaceae and is related to the apple, the strawberry, the cherry, and the almond. Indigenous to the Northern Hemisphere, rose species are distributed from China to Europe and temperate North America. A few occur north of the Arctic Circle and at high elevations in the tropics.
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