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| There is something I have always wondered about when it comes to hybrid tea roses. I notice that my hybrid tea roses will open normally like everyone's and then eventually die. What I'm curious about is florist roses. When I have purchased them in the past, they always seem to have a very distinct shape. I'm not sure how to describe what I mean (I'm including a picture) but it's as if the flower is longer in length and never really open. Are they shaped this way because they are picked very early or does it have to do with the type of rose.
Hope this makes sense:) Maude |
Here is a link that might be useful: Florist rose shape
Follow-Up Postings:
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| They want roses to last as long as possible in a vase, so florists roses are really bred to hold that half-open form until Hades freezes over and we all go ice-skating there. Jeri |
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| Agreed! Most florist roses are bred to have those long urn shaped buds that open very slowly. If they flew open in only a couple of days people would never spend the BIG $$$$$ to buy them. Most of them don't do very well as garden roses though because they were bred to live and die in greenhouses. There are some exceptions though. I have Red Intuition and it's turned out to be a really good garden rose and winter hardy. And it still exhibits those big buds that open very slowly for me. |
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| They're not bred that way. They're harvested just beyond the bud stage - slightly open - when the sepals have dropped. Then they're refrigerated. The refrigeration sets the form. Weeks/months in the refrigerator and they'll never open anymore than that. |
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| This is as good a video as I've ever seen on harvesting roses. Note that many of the roses in the early shots look just like our roses (if not a bit tall!). However, after the processing, packing, and chilling, there are very few that are going to fully open after all of that. Also, as the processing progresses, the temperatures get lower - until in the last scene, the workers are wearing heavy coats and hoods: |
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| Thanks so much for all the responses everyone. That's a very interesting video you posted as I am a huge huge fan of How it's Made; stuff like that just fascinates me. I would think that the fact that the roses are kind of squashed together and refrigerated would also have an impact on the shape of flower. I know that when an orchid is refrigerated and packed, it is done so very carefuly so that the shape will not be distorted. Maude |
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| The florist rose industry is an environmental nightmare. Most are grown in 3rd world countries, blasted with heavy chemicals to which very poorly paid workers are exposed. There's a big price for that "perfection." |
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| Cat -- even when they were in the U.S., that industry was a horror. A few years ago, I read a book by a woman who spent a year working in florist rose greenhouses, in Ohio, I think. It was a quirky little book, and very educational. I believe that, in South America, there are actually some operations that are NOT drenching the roses with chemicals. As for opening, some of it IS breeding. Take a rose like Kardinal, which was bred for the florist trade. In our climate, it just sits there like a dark red LUMP. But in a greenhouse, it does open JUST ENOUGH . . . Oh, but the canes are so thin and weak, as they come out of the greenhouse! We used to go up to Carpinteria, and pick them up for Mother's Day Rose Sales ... Not at all my cup of tea. Jeri |
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