Throughout history, the rose has carried a rich heritage with earliest evidence of its
existence some sixty million years ago. It was cultivated by the ancient Chinese, has
been found in tombs of Egyptian Pharaohs and is mentioned in the Bible. With this
background, it is the logical choice for our national flower.
No better symbol exists of the pain and suffering of the Trail Where They Cried than the
Cherokee Rose. The mothers of the Cherokee grieved so much that the chiefs prayed for
a sign to lift the mother's spirits and give them strength to care for their children. From
that day forward, a beautiful new flower, a rose, grew wherever a mother's tear fell to
the ground. The rose is white, for the mother's tears. It has a gold center, for the gold
taken from the Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem that represent the seven
Cherokee clans that made the journey. To this day, the Cherokee Rose prospers along
the route of the "Trail of Tears"
The Oklahoma Rose has also been named as the official flower of the state of Oklahoma.
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