Rainbow roses, blue chrysanthemums … Where are the saturated colors from? We reveal all the secrets.
Rose — the queen of flowers, the queen of flowerbeds and gardens, it has been popular at all times. It has become so popular because of the centuries-old work of breeders and botanists. What varieties of roses have been bred in recent centuries! They achieved very rare colors and shades!
For example, a blue rose. Such a rose never grew in nature, but it has long been known in floristry, unique blue roses and bouquets of it is not uncommon. But the fact is that such instances can be obtained by staining. Sometimes, it is done in a primitive way — with a brush and paint. Of course, the result and the lifetime of such flowers are far from ideal. They do not look well, quickly fade, sometimes they have an unpleasant pungent smell of dye. But there is another way, proven over the centuries: white roses, freshly cut at an angle of 45 degrees, you need to soak in a solution of food coloring. To do this, the stem is completely immersed in the solution, you can make an additional incision just in case. The more concentrated the solution, the brighter the color of the petals. The procedure will take from 12 to 24 hours. However, color will fade over time. In order to achieve better quality, you can paint the roses even in the process of growing, before cutting. It just needs to be watered with dye, preferably food, twice or thrice a week. It is possible to color not only white, but all pale varieties. You can drip copper or water the flowers in the flowerbed with a solution of copper sulfate. Different shades of blue and violet are obtained with this method. You can get blue petals by constantly watering burgundy roses with a mild potassium permanganate solution.
It should be noted that due to genetic modification, Japanese scientists managed to develop a new variety of roses, which was called “Applause.” To do this, they synthesized delphinidin in pansies, responsible for the blue color, and transplanted it to a rose. Honestly, the color was not pure blue, but with a purple tint. Testing and work to improve quality continued. All blue roses have a very high price, and the Applause variety has a price ten times higher than the rest. Demand for blue roses is not declining. They are a symbol of an unattainable ideal, perfection, a subtle hint of blue royal blood. Today, the most affordable and cheapest way to get blue roses is staining. The staining method is used to obtain truly fantastic roses such as rainbow roses. Their petals have bright, unusual, often sharply opposite, multi-colored shades. Of course, that such roses do not exist and cannot exist in nature, but they are commercially available and are in demand, but they are not cheap. In order to get rainbow roses, you should cut off the white roses and carefully split the stem into the required number of parts along, about 10 centimeters, according to how many shades you plan to give your flower. Each part is carefully placed in containers with a dye, as a rule, it can be tubules. A day is enough for the final result, and in a few hours the edges of the petals can be painted, which also looks original and interesting. You can achieve an unusual color using yellow, pink and other pale roses. Rainbow roses live in a vase for about a week. You should prepare gentle solutions so as not to harm the flowers and extend their durability.
The method of internal staining can also be used to obtain unusual chrysanthemums. It can also be soaked with concentrated food coloring of the desired shade. It is best to use white flowers. The richer the solution, the brighter the resulting shade of the petals, usually it is paler than the solution. In order for the flowers to color faster, you need to make them thirsty, for this you need to hold it for some time without water, then they will drink more intensively and change color faster. Usually this procedure lasts about a day. Of course, the practice of staining both chrysanthemums and roses with floristic paints or floral spray paint still remains. But this method is far from perfect, it has a lot of flaws and does not give the desired result.
Based on materials from: kvitolux.com.ua
Author: Roman Oleksiienko
