Green Roses
Green roses are
among the rarest naturally-colored roses in existence. It may be difficult to
believe, considering that most plants are naturally green, but it took a while
for rose fanciers to breed true green roses. In fact, until 1800, when the red
rose arrived, all the roses in Europe were pink, white, or some interesting
combination thereof. It was decades later that people in the Western world got
their first glimpses of a type of green roses (a.k.a. Rosa chinensis 'Viridiflora'),
and those were so weird that most didn't recognize them for what they were.
Yes, they were obviously the blooms of rose bushes, and they were green; but
it seemed that the plant had forgotten the petals, and elected to replace them
instead with a profuse mass of sepals, the green leaf-like structures surrounding
a normal rose bloom. These are the only green roses you'll find where the petals
are as green as the leaves. Most green roses offer a cooler, green-tinged pastel
hue.
The first true green roses were miniature roses that appeared after 1960, but
soon enough breeders had managed to produce green roses of the normal "floribunda"
size. Some begin in some other color, and age to a soft mint-green; others turn
green if the weather is cool enough, and some of them, especially miniature
green roses like the Green Ice variety, are always green. Of course, it's also
possible to make green roses without having to depend on Mother Nature: white
roses take green dye as well as they do blue or black.
Why don't green roses occur in nature?
That's a good question, considering that most vegetation is, in fact, green,
including most of the rose plant. There are other green flowers, so why not
roses? The answer is frustratingly close to "just because": apparently
there are no genes in the rose gene pool that provide for true green in the
blooms. Most existing natural green roses are the result of mixtures of other
colors, which are fine for the eye. Humans being the helpful beasts that we
are, don't be surprised if scientists tinkering with the rose genome find a
way to add a pure, deep green to the rose repertoire. If they can make mice
glow green using jellyfish genes, surely we'll soon have honest, rich green
roses to enjoy.
Get your green roses here
Green roses make for a unique addition to any important event, and you can
be sure that they'll set people to talking. So, does Mr. Roses carry the classy
green roses you need for your event? Need you even ask? You bet we do! And you
can't beat the prices, either. Where else can you get fifty long-stemmed green
roses for just (drumroll please) $88.99? That's over four dozen for less than
the price of two dozen. Our green roses are robust and hearty flowers, and they're
a darker green than you might expect -- not the glossy green of the weird Viridiflora
type, but more than a mere tinge. And these aren't miniature roses, either:
they're full blown floribundas, with the standard 20-inch stems, straight from
Ecuador to you. How do we do it? Why, that's our secret!
