The (toilet-paper) rose revolution - or fakes all around?

Oh dear, after making some dismissive comments linking the fake trees opposite the opera house to the type of democracy practised here, now this.

On Sunday we had a special Valentine's hash, which included roses and chocolates planted all over the trail. Lovely thought by two lovely guys.

This evening someone asked me - did you get a toilet paper rose? When I got home I had a look at my rose (which I had never put in water....), and right enough, a few rose petals were wrapped around a lump of toilet paper, and all that was on top of a twig, attached with nice cellophane and a beautiful pink ribbon.

To be honest, during the run I thought the stem was a bit frail, but I put that down to the roses being out overnight. As a gardener I ought to have twigged (oh no, what a pun!), also if I had bought the roses - but honestly - would you expect to buy fake roses? The leaves on the twigs were a bit long, and of course not whatever-it-is-you-call-it-and-I-should-know divided into little leaves,and the twigs were definitely on the thin side. No thorns, but people de-thorn roses; I've done it myself.

The labour involved is awesome, of which making the toilet paper ball is the least; it also means having enough rose petals available, picking the right twig, fixing the petals so the have the shape of a rose flower, doing the cellophane and the pink ribbon. Much easier to just grow a rose, really. I wonder for how many fake flowers one real flower would suffice? Plus the inner petals are smaller, so you would be able to produce a new rose from each real rose every couple of days or so.

What is real in Georgian nature?