Nothing seems to make us go gaga like a heady, perfume-soaked rose — the texture of the petals, the saturation of color, even the sting of a random thorn — it’s all part of the romance and mystique of the flower of love.

I fell in love with roses long ago. We grew them in my family’s greenhouse. Back then things were different — we had over seven acres of greenhouses in a small town in Nebraska and we had greenhouses dedicated to roses. I can still recall the smell of the rose house at night — greenhouses are especially mysterious at night.

Today’s garden roses are sturdy, long-asting and crowd-pleasing, as this design by J Schwanke of uBloom.com testifies. (Photo courtesy of uBloom.com)My grandfather grew roses that we sold in our flower shop — red ones, white ones, and of course yellow — not nearly the varieties we see today. And the challenge we dealt with on a day-to-day basis was selling the roses that were blooming and not taking orders for those that were not.

Today things are different — with hundreds of varieties literally at our beckoned call we can choose from hybrid tea roses, spray roses, or romantic garden roses in just about any color, hue, shape and size.

What is amazing about the rose today is the continued quest to find the perfect rose that helps us express what simple words cannot — “I love you,” “I miss you,” “I remember you,” “I wish you health and happiness,” etc. There’s a chart that will give you just about any meaning you want for just about any color.

The truth of the matter is that the rose simply pulls at our heartstrings. It is the official national flower of the United States, the symbol of love and the stirrer of memories. I can’t smell a garden rose without thinking of my grandmother harvesting roses in the greenhouse and it’s heart-warming.

I’m a creative sort by nature. I love arranging flowers and roses provide a special joy and magic. Wielding my design knife, inspired by the palette from flower farmers in California, Ecuador, Amsterdam or South Africa, my “brushstrokes” are created with long, sturdy, thorn-laden stems, with powerful majestic blossoms or sprays of voluptuous buds and blossoms.

Today’s roses are sturdy, long-lasting and crowd-pleasing. Gone are the days of three-day vase life. Spray roses offer a multitude of blossoms that provide an array of magical colors and perfumed garden roses last eight to 10 days.

No longer are we limited to red, white, pink and yellow. Today we have ivory, cream, green, red, burgundy, orange, peach, a “bushel” of pinks, lavender, yellow, magenta, purple and varieties with stripes, blushes, edges and shapes that boggle the mind.

Today’s flower lover has a multitude of colors, shapes and textures to choose from — the choices are endless — and what amazes me most is that the choices keep coming. What will it be tomorrow? The sky is the limit as breeders the world over seek to enthrall us and enrapture us with new colors, textures, fragrances and styles.

A rose is a rose is a rose, and please — keep them coming.

J Schwanke is president at J Schwanke Productions and chief executive officer at uBloom.com. He can be contacted at [email protected].