cthulhia | Roses (how to bait a cthulhia trap)

When above freezing, my walking commute features a street florist who sells roses slightly past their prime. They only last a couple days before they wilt. Fine by me, hang 'em upside down to make dried bouquets. $2-5 for a dozen! That's 2 cups of coffee.

I'm a bit stupid over roses.

I have been known to attempt being adorable and call them "woses". It must've worked. Those who were within earshot have since voluntarily added me to their friends list.

In one of my early open studios expeditions (not the Waltham one before I moved here,

cos) a resident artist had dried bouquets of mostly yellow roses collaging one of her walls. I really liked the way they looked. Much better than when all red ones dry tarry black (yeah, revoke my goth license if you must).

I must've been at my first long term T-commute contract by then, because I regularly walked past a different dirt-cheap rose vendor. By the end of it, upside down roses were hanging off of all the unused curtain rod holder bits throughout my home. Several dozen (along with Inconspicious Consumption-inspired display food, like the package of Smack Brand Ramen, and the Crunkycandy bar) were chucked out of fear during The Great Kitchen Infestation. The remainder, along with the dozen roses from my valentine, (which was probably a once in a lifetime event, although I encourage you to prove me wrong) are now displayed in some ceramic vase I confiscated from mom, and a paper bag, which looked far more elegant than expected. It was a boutique bag, with the curved twine looking handles.

When I first got here, I experimented with different pinks, hoping one of them would dry red. (Not really.) Eventually, I turned to the red-tipped yellow-to-peachy ones. Reminded me of the colors of (human) sex organs, (although I suspect I was brain-addled with 30-something ovulation at the time, probably had erotic opinions about the binder clips, too.) Anyway, they've dried now, and they look red.

I decided to try to find out what these roses are called.