Blue Flowers
Blue is the colour of my ….
Well, maybe I shouldn’t be singing old ballads but if I were, I’d be singing about blue flowers this week.
But don’t get excited.
Blue Rose
It seems the Japanese plant company Suntory (biotech, whiskey distilling, seeds) have inserted the blue genes of a pansy into a rose to give us a true blue rose.
But.
You can’t get it.
It’s being released in Japan to cut flower growers and “maybe” to some cut flower growers in the U.S. Maybe.
So maybe you can get it as a *very* expensive cut flower next yeasr (no idea but the rarity of this is going to send the price well into the premium cut flower standards) but you can’t get it for your garden.
And just when you thought I was teasing you about blue roses.
Blue Impatiens
I read that there’s a blue impatiens (pictured above). Thompson and Morgan have introduced a blue impatiens from China. The original seed was collected but the flowers are sparse and the plant leggy. They have been working to make it more compact and floriferous and are about to release a new variety.
In the U.K.
Not in North America.
Yet.
You can apparently obtain the species seed in the U.S. so you can have ugly blue flowering impatiens plants but not the good ones.
But have patience. You have to believe that this is only the first wave of breeding and the really good ones either are or will be in the pipeline for distribution.
Every gardener I know wants to sing the blues in their garden.
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Stuart on Fri, 8th Feb 2008 9:46 pm
Oh, the tease of it all. A bit rude really holding back on us like that.
I guess if they’re not releasing them in the US for sometime then our wait in OZ is plus another 5-10 years from your arrival date. Very ordinary.
Doug on Fri, 8th Feb 2008 10:10 pm
Yeah Stuart - well, I live in Canada as you know and we’ll get it (or not) a year or three after the US. Size has it’s advantage y’know.
But you could likely order the species seed and then start breeding your own given that it supposedly throws seeds like mad.
Moni on Fri, 8th Feb 2008 11:12 pm
I love blue flowers but I’m not sure about a blue rose?!? Perhaps if it is a clear true blue it would be OK.
If it is going to be 10 years to get a compact blue impatiens, then perhaps we could screen for our own compact plant before that?
Sorry, won’t be me…the only shade I have is out where the deer graze!
jodi on Sat, 9th Feb 2008 4:22 am
As I said when I saw this blue impatiens on Graham’s site; I could love this one (most impatiens leave me cold, except the interesting coloured-ones; I had yellow and salmony orange last year, of the balsimifera type rather than the boring flat ones (the species and hybrid is eluding me, perhaps lack of sleep…) and they did very well in containers in a shady part of the garden. Never met a blue flower I didn’t love…except a blue rose would leave me cold because we’ve seen too many tacky artificial ones.
Doug on Sat, 9th Feb 2008 2:32 pm
Jodi/Moni I believe the rose color is indeed “pansy blue” rather than the paint-sprayed ones named “blue”. A gene or two here and there will do that for you I think. It actually strikes me as somewhat heretical and I haven’t quite figured out whether I’d really grow it or not. But there will be no lack of takers when/if it is released to the public.
Aiyana on Sat, 9th Feb 2008 5:45 pm
I read somewhere that most folks find the idea of a blue rose unappealing, even for novelty. It will be interesting to see how it does commercially.
Aiyana
Doug on Sun, 10th Feb 2008 5:05 pm
I’d be interested in reading that research as every bit of marketing I’ve seen says the opposite. Blue is big. So if you remember where you’re read that Aiyanna, I’d love to see it.
Rainbow Water Gardens on Thu, 4th Sep 2008 8:45 am
@jodi -
I will have seeds for the blue impatiens available in December. I will also have a limited quantity of plants available by April.
And, I’m just north of OZ, in Big Red country.
(That’s Nebraska, for those of you in Rio Linda)
Val
Doug on Thu, 4th Sep 2008 8:59 am
@Rainbow Water Gardens -
Hi - we’re just getting set to start a seed swap section of the forums so I know those blue impatiens are going to be a serious hit. We’ll all be “first in line”.
Lori on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 10:17 am
I was just at a gardening show in souther ontario this past weekend and bought some ‘Blue Sky’ Gladiolus bulbs. The picture shows a brilliant royal blue flower with a white centre. We’ll see!
Doug on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 11:46 am
@Lori -
I’ve seen pics of this and all are photo-shopped a different color. I’ll look forward to you telling us how blue they really are
Don’t hold your breath.