I love the concept of the Rose in The Golden Ass. Anything in the world could have turned him back into a human being but they picked the Rose. I did a little research, thats right i actually worked on my blog, and found that the Rose really played no hugely important role in greek mythology, which i thought i was interesting. you would think the key to his morphing back into a human would be significant! but a rose! to pick such a pure image as a bright red velvety flower seems perfect. With the rose too you can incorporate the idea of cycles and natures movement through the seasons. I just read shoni's blog about a flower going through the concrete. This reminded me of a favorite poem of mine by a well know and debatably dead warrior-poet, Tupac Shakur. it goes as follows....

"Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it learned
to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared."