Petal Power

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Throughout history, there have been numerous transformative and significant uprisings. The Marigold Uprising, led by Joseph Flowers, was not one of them. Joseph, or the Marigold Man, as he would become to be known, wanted to replace the rose as the national flower with the marigold.

It is not clear if it was his love for the marigold or disdain for the rose that drove him, but driven he was.

It had all started many years ago, when, as a young man, he had fallen hopelessly in love with a local beauty known as Mary Potts. He worked up the courage to ask her to the local dance. On his way over, he purchased one red rose. He asked the all-important question and handed Mary the rose, but before she could give her answer, things went horribly wrong. The rose still had its thorns, and one of them cut Mary’s hand. It caused a single drop of blood to fall on her white blouse. Mary, upset that her favorite blouse was ruined, started to cry. As she sobbed, she said, “Oh, why did it have to be a rose with thorns? Why couldn’t you have just gotten me a marigold?”

Joseph, heartbroken, vowed on that day he would avenge his one true love. His quest to make the marigold the National Flower began.

Joseph thought hard about what weapons he could use to wage this uprising. He decided this called for using the most powerful weapon known to mankind. Yes, he would use microaggression.

No more would he stand idly by when someone sang the praises of the rose. Instead, he would roll his eyes. In his bar tending job, if someone was wearing a rose print, he would serve them last. If they had the actual flower, he would purposely get their order wrong. At the county fair, when they were judging the Best Rose contest, he would make disparaging remarks under his breath. He refused to recognize February 14th as anything but a normal day and purposely wore orange.

This went on for years, and sometimes Joseph felt he was making genuine progress. He noted that on Halloween, there had been a 32% increase in the use of orange. He attributed this to people secretly supporting his efforts.

But for every victory, there were setbacks. They played the Rose Bowl every year, despite his refusal to watch. He wrote to the Orange Bowl and pleaded with them to adopt the marigold. His letters went unanswered. And most troubling of all, the White House continued to hold important events in the Rose Garden.

But Joseph labored on. He knew one day he would succeed, then he could return to his hometown and ask Mary for that dance.

But then the event occurred that would shake him to his very core. You see, Mary had not stayed in their hometown; she had left to become a successful Broadway actress. One day, Joseph saw a flyer advertising her latest play, “A Rose by Any Other Name”, starring Mary Potts.

What did this mean? Had she tired of waiting for him and was taking matters into her own hands? Was she declaring that you should no longer use the term rose? Joseph was confused. He had to get to Broadway right away.

On February 14th, 2021, Joseph Flowers, the Marigold Man, dressed in orange, purchased one ticket at the Garden Theater to see Mary Potts star in the hit Broadway play “A Rose by Any Other Name”. As the show went on, Joseph grew depressed. She was not speaking out against roses, and there was no mention of marigolds.

After the play ended, during the curtain call, a catastrophic event occurred that would leave Joseph forever changed, and his life's work would lie in ruins. As Mary Potts took her bows, they handed her a large bouquet of red roses. Smiling, she accepted them, leaned over, and inhaled their aroma. She kissed the person who handed them to her on the cheek and said, “I always love getting roses, especially on Valentine’s Day.”