Having a rose dream is often a very memorable experience as such dreams either have a very strong and easily apparent meaning or they feel somewhat mysterious and unclear. That’s because the symbolism of a rose bouquet or a rose garden can vary greatly from person to person and from culture to culture.
For most people today, bouquets of roses symbolize romance and love, but just jumping to that interpretation isn’t accurate for everybody. In fact, many people who think of roses that way don’t realize that their subconscious mind can see them in the opposite light. This makes interpreting a rose dream as tricky as it is fascinating.
So, let’s go over the 11 most common meanings of a dream about roses and how the context of your dream can help you figure out exactly what your dream meant.
Basalt
What does a dream about roses mean?
The first thing to note is that a dream about roses can take many different forms – you may dream of a bouquet of roses, a rose garden, finding a lone rose in the woods, drinking dried rose tea, or stumbling on hundreds of dead roses in your garden. All those dreams have different meanings but often even the same dream can have different meanings for different people.
1. Giving or receiving red roses usually symbolizes love and passion
By far the most common rose dream is the one signifying new love, romance, affection, an offer of marriage, and a whole plethora of other similar emotions one would have toward their sweetheart girlfriend or boyfriend.
Such dreams usually include a red or pink rose bouquet being given or received as a gift, however, there are many other dream scenarios that can also fit in that context. You might dream about you and your loved one simply walking and stumbling upon a rose bush together. Or, it could just be you alone, finding a rose whilst thinking of your loved one.
In either case, such dreams are easy to recognize as they are usually full of excitement and anticipation. They can sometimes feel a bit uneasy, hinting at your insecurities and your fears about your love life. If you sense such insecurities in your dream, that could be a good hint that you need to look into that as it might be a barrier to your future love life.
2. Red roses can also symbolize heartbreak under a specific context
If a red roses dream involves more than just a feeling of insecurity and uneasiness but outright fear, regret, jealousy, and other such negative feelings, the symbolism here usually is that you are afraid your partner is having an affair.
This doesn’t mean that infidelity is certainly happening and your dream is prophetic, it just means that your subconscious mind is afraid of such an outcome.
It could be that your inner self has read a bit too much into some random gestures, it could be that you’ve been burned by a partner before and you now have trust issues, or it could be that you come from a broken family and the trust issues stem from there.
Whatever the case, if you have such a pronounced negative love dream and you are in a relationship, this should be a warning sign that you need to air things out with your partner and fix whatever underlying issue is causing the mistrust.
After all, it could be that your partner has been unfaithful and your subconscious has picked up on it or you might end up making the mistake of being a self-fulfilling prophecy.
3. Some can see roses as a symbol of virtue and innocence
A much more mild and pure meaning of roses, including red roses, is the Christian notion of roses as symbols of purity, innocence, virtue, and virginity. Dreams of this sort are very common for people who’ve had a religious upbringing and/or for those who are concerned about keeping their innocence. It’s also not uncommon for overprotective parents who are worried about their children.
This type of dream will often include rose petals or young rose buds instead of rose bouquets. The connotation of the dream can either be hopeful and positive or a bit worrying, depending on what you’re going through in life at the moment.
4. Roses can also mean wealth and good fortune
Another separate meaning of roses that’s tied to certain Asian cultures and mythologies is that of roses as symbols of prosperity, wealth, and fortune. The Hindu goddess Lakshmi is a prime example of that as a goddess of beauty and fertility but also of good fortune and wealth.
If your dream has a context that leans in that direction – it shows you walking through rich and lush rose gardens or gathering enormous bouquets of multi-colored rose flowers, and other such scenarios, then it’s not unlikely that your subconscious mind is feeling like you’ve been especially prosperous and fortune recently, or that you really want to get there.
5. Being surrounded by roses may simply symbolize happiness and fulfillment
There is an inherent feel-good vibe of chilling in a flower garden, right under a huge rose bush. A dream like that can be an incredibly calming and pleasant experience, and it also has a very straightforward and nice interpretation – you feel like some positive changes are coming or have come your way, and you’re feeling good about where your life is right now.
A less pleasant variation of this dream can include someone or something chasing you off this beautiful dream garden and plunging your life into chaos – that’s also common for people who’ve been happy with their life for quite some time before something went drastically wrong.
6. You may be overreaching with some of your aspirations or you fear you might be overreaching
Pricking your finger or rose thorns is generally seen as a bad luck symbol in dreams. It’s often more than that, however, as it signifies a warning from your subconscious – a warning that some of your current real-life endeavors might be more dangerous than you think, that you’re being greedy with something and you might get punished, and so on.
Or, such a dream can also signal your own insecurities, meaning that your inner self is afraid to be happy and get the rose plant it deserves. Such fear of the pain that might be hidden on a rose stem can seem justified to our subconscious but it can also be largely overblown.
7. Drinking dried rose tea tends to symbolize bountifulness and contentedness
Rose petal tea is great for reducing anxiety and inflammation, as well as improving our digestion, immune system, and more. It’s also incredibly soothing and has a signature bitter-sweet taste. Not all of us are fans of rose tea but those that are tend to associate it with peace and tranquility.
If you’re one of those people, you may find yourself dreaming of rose tea in situations where your subconscious needs a break, some peace, and to enjoy the bountifulness and contentedness of life.
8. Dead roses usually mean an existential dread that something you love will be gone soon
A much darker interpretation is also possible when the dream has included a wilting or burning rose, or a dead rose with just a petal or two barely hanging from it.
These dreams are often steeped with sadness, grief, and sorrow, and they indicate that we are afraid of a family member suffering from a serious illness or we’re worried about something else happening to a loved one. Dreams like that are also common right after a painful breakup.
9. White roses also symbolize peace – sometimes in a positive sense, sometimes as in “peace in death”
White roses are a universal symbol of peace. As they are also very common in funerals, however, they are also associated with death. This means that a white rose dream can be either very pleasant or outright dreadful. Fortunately, it’s very easy to figure out which from the dream’s context and feeling.
10. Yellow roses usually mean friendship and comradery
Another well-known color symbolism for roses is that of compassion and friendship, commonly associated with yellow roses. If you see a yellow rose in your dream, it’s important to try and remember who you saw it in association with as you likely didn’t just dream of yourself alone with a yellow rose.
Whoever else was there with you, are likely someone you feel very close with in a platonic and friendly sort of way. If you did dream of yourself alone with a yellow rose and the dream had negative connotations, it’s likely that deep down you feel like you need more friends and you don’t have enough confidants in your life.
11. Rose dreams can also mean an intense desire for finding something unique
Many rose dreams have a very different but simple premise – that of us walking in a strange new place and finding a unique-looking rose in an odd place. It could be an orange rose, green rose, violet rose, or even a multi-colored rose.
Dreams like often mean that we feel lucky for finding something so unique and unexpected or that we desperately need to find something like that in a new and tough situation in our waking life.
In conclusion
A dream of a red rose being gifted or received usually doesn’t require much interpretation – most people around the world will see that as symbolizing love. Things get wackier when you start examining the other contexts in which roses can appear in dreams – different colors, different circumstances, and so on.
Ultimately, like any other dream, a correct interpretation depends on how many details and context you can remember and how well you understand your own psyche and your real-life circumstances. Hopefully, the 11 common interpretations above will give you enough pointers for you to fill the rest in with context from the dream.
Basalt