It has come to my attention that nobody knows about vampires and roses

That’s about to change

You have no doubt heard about stakes. About holy water, about counting, about mirrors. About garlic, even (I do have opinions about this one but that’s for another day). Today I’m determined to let you all know about my favorite and most unknown method of dealing with vampires.

Roses.

Wild roses, also called dogroses. Specially of the yellow coloration in some sources, which greatly reminds me to the Mexican tradition that links marigolds with the Día de Muertos festivities, but has little to do its origin, sadly, because the original ones are of the pink or white variety.

And yes, as much as I hate quoting Dracula by my infamous Bram Stoker it is indeed one of the earliest written texts where we can see them used multiple times.

“ “What shall we do exactly?” asked Mr. Morris laconically. The Professor paused before replying:—

“We shall at the first board that ship; then, when we have identified the box, we shall place a branch of the wild rose on it. This we shall fasten, for when it is there none can emerge; so at least says the superstition. And to superstition must we trust at the first; it was man’s faith in the early, and it have its root in faith still. Then, when we get the opportunity that we seek, when none are near to see, we shall open the box, and—and all will be well.” ”

In very old medicine treaties the roots were used to treat rabies, commonly spread by the bite of wolves or bats, both very vampire-related animals, but what is most interesting is that there are not a lot of folk sources that use them against evil in general (unlike other resources like garlic or crosses, for example, that are used fairly universally agains everything deemed “demonic”) so it’s safe to say it is a vampire-specific method. 

It is also a very thorny plant, and back in the day it was a saying that to spread thorns around a dead body so they would pierce it would avoid for it to turn into a vampire because it would catch on the shroud and pin it down so it wouldn’t be able rise. So that may also have to do with the branch that mister Stoker was citing.

“Then there are things which so afflict him that he has no power, as the garlic that we know of; and as for things sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix, that was amongst us even now when we resolve, to them he is nothing, but in their presence he take his place far off and silent with respect. There are others, too, which I shall tell you of, lest in our seeking we may need them. The branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him that he move not from it; a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill him so that he be true dead; and as for the stake through him, we know already of its peace; or the cut-off head that giveth rest. We have seen it with our eyes.”

As you see in this explanation by Van Helsing in the book, the tools that hold up against a vampire can be divided into three categories: the weapon, the talisman, and the natural kind. The weapon reminds us that it is an enemy of humankind, the talisman, that it is an enemy of god, and the natural, that it is a rebellion against the primal order or life and death. In any case, that it is a monster, and as thus it must be destroyed.

Maybe roses are all three, I think. They have thorns, like the ones that scratched the forehead of the Lord as he was hanging from the cross, the one that bled so other could live an eternal life, a twisted mirror image of the vampire, who takes it to live forever. They are a weapon, as they pin the undead body to the coffin, or to the earth and forbids it to rise.  And they are natural, and as all flowers, cursed to live a life as brief as it is beautiful. And as so, they are a metaphor of human life, and a warning for the believers to not look for eternity in the monstruous, but in God and the afterlife, I guess.

Good night, denizens of the Cathedral, and may your flowers thrive and your thorns ward you off of those who won’t let you grow. May you stay weird, and monstruous.