I found out about this super cool new thing from FreePeople, one of my favorite clothing lines. In honor of Valentine's Day tomorrow and as a testament to creativity and the drive to create something new...
The Rainbow Rose! Yes, they DO exist!
The Rainbow Rose is the brain child of two Dutch companies, River Flowers and F.J. Zandbergen and Zn. that collaborated beginning in 2006 to form the Happy Roses company for the specific promotion and sale of these roses. River Flowers had previously developed a patent for adding color to chrysanthemum petals and F.J. Zandbergen was a rose specialist. Chrysanthemums, hydrangea, carnations, and some orchids are also able to have their petals colored in the same fashion I'll describe below.
A rose absorbs water necessary for its survival via the water running up the stem. Developers exploited this common fact by splitting the stem and dipping each split in a different water-based colored dye while the rose is still young. The colors then travel up the stem and are drawn into the different petals.
Cool, huh?
But just FYI, this technique does NOT work with every rose. The Vendela Rose is the only type that absorbs all of the colors perfectly. The Vendela Rose is an unscented hybrid tea rose that grows in Holland, Colombia, and Equador. Sometimes Rose La Belle and Rose Avalanche can be used too.
Color combinations are surely not limited to the Rainbow effect. Just in my brief researching on this topic, I saw red and pink and purple and yellow (for those LSU fans out there...) too. Black and white, however, is deemed impossible to make.
And yes, Happy Flowers DOES deliver in the U.S.! Anyone besides me really excited about this and dying (HA, I'll take that pun!) to get some??? Well, the goin' rate for a dozen of these babies is about $139.95 with an additional $40 for overnight shipping. Whew!
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