Judge by Looks

Photograph is "Agaricus Rose Campestris" by alexiuss.

            The finest sorcerers spent years breeding this.

            Old men and women bent creaky backs over workbenches covered in tiny seeds. Middle aged witches and warlocks carefully placed hundreds of blooms into the cages of terrified mice. Freshly cloaked journeymen donned garden gloves and breathing-masks to collect the blooms. Eager apprentices dutifully watered the seedlings, pruned the potted bushes, and stoked the fires that kept the greenhouse warm in the cold seasons.  

            Thorns became smaller and duller-edged. Leaves developed a natural green. Petals became redder in hue, softer in texture.

            The plants became more convincing.

            Slowly, year after painstaking year, worthless plant after worthless plant, this emerged.

            A thing that looks exactly like rose, a beauty to die for.