Everything's Coming Up Roses

The last time my parents visited me was in October, and during that trip my mom stumbled on an article (I believe in Southern Living, but it was a magazine she had picked up at Barnes & Nobles here, in Louisiana) about Confederate Roses. She read the article and thought, "I need to buy Shoshanah one of these plants" except decided to look in out backyard first to find this...
It's a Confederate Rose bush in case you couldn't guess. But what is so special about these flowers, and why did my mom want to make sure we had one? Well this is what they look like as they bloom.
Obviously these haven't bloomed yet, but you can see how white the petals are. Well, this was that same flower 24 hours later.
And here it as about 24 hours after that.
In case you're more of a word person, the flowers start of white and slowly fade to a dark red. The article my mom read, and most gardening websites say it happens of the coarse of a day, but mine seem to take slightly longer.
If you're curious about the name, the story is a Confederate soldier was fatally wounded during battle and fell on top of a rose bush. As he lay dying, his blood fell on the roses slowly changing their color from white to red. Through magic all of its descendents continued to have their blooms slowly turn red. So it's not the most romantic of stories, or truthful, but still interesting.
But back to my rose bush... until my mom pointed it out I had never seen it bloom, or even noticed the bush, or the fact that all of my neighbors happen to have them as well. And it just so happened that the week my parents were there it was blooming. It recently started blooming again, which surprised me because it was only May. Hopefully that means it will continue to bloom throughout the summer, which could mean it will be blooming the week of the wedding.
Now we already have a florist to make the bouquets, and I'm planning on diy-ing our centerpieces, maybe using fake flowers, but I think it would be fun to somehow use these blooms in someway for the wedding. (Assuming of course it's blooming. Considering I've never bother to notice it before I have no idea if it will stay blooming till October, or if maybe it just blooms in May and October.) But maybe we could use the petals for the flower girl basket. Or maybe I could leave a cutting on the chair that would have been my mom's in remembrance.

But even if this doesn't make an appearance at the wedding, I'm grateful to my mom for point it out to me, and now whenever I see Confederate flowers I'll think of my mom.