French Rose

This rosa gallica or French rose is a cultivar called 'Versicolor' which I found growing in the grounds of Parcivall Hall in North Yorkshire. It is rather striking for its peculiar mixture of white and pink, giving it the appearance of confectionary sold at fairgrounds. The Royal Horticultural Society offers warning, however, at least regarding the attractive little orange-red, oval hips which follow the bloom:

Fruit are ornamental - not to be eaten. Wear gloves and other protective equipment when handling.

Like the flowers from which they come, they are good to look at, but harmful to taste. The Christian’s good works are often likened to fruits in the Bible: we are saved for them, but not by them. Their absence indicates a lack of saving grace, so each Christian should be fruitful. Yet any whose fruit is only good for the Gardener’s eye and not his mouth is surely no fruit at all. If what you do looks good, appears holy and is seen as admirable, but its substance is bitter, poisonous or toxic, it is no fruit at all, but a bitter little hip, unfit to be even touched.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23