Flower – Rainbow Roses

This rose caught my attention because of its beautiful magickal appearance. Granted it is a man-made variety and at this time I good not find a definitive spiritual meaning for it. To me this rose represents hope and good days ahead.

 

How to Make a Fresh Rainbow Rose Bouquet from thespruce.com

The technique florists use to turn roses into a rainbow. This article has a video with it.

By

MARIE IANNOTTI

PROJECT OVERVIEW

  • WORKING TIME: 15 mins
  • TOTAL TIME: 2 hrs – 1 wk
  • YIELD: Rainbow roses
  • SKILL LEVEL: Beginner
  • ESTIMATED COST: $0-10

Rainbow roses are white roses that are put through a process that gives them uniquely multicolored petals. Although the result may look like the roses were bred to have rainbow colors, they are not hybrid crosses between different colored flowers, the way most new shades of flowers are created. The method involves immersing the stems of white roses in dye and the result is usually a rainbow effect.

Tip

Should you buy or make rainbow roses yourself? Rainbow roses from a florist are expensive so if you attempt this process at home, you will save on costs, especially if you grow your own white roses on which to experiment. But the process is delicate and the colors likely won’t be as dramatic as commercial versions.

The Origins of Rainbow Roses

These brightly colored blossoms are the result of some very clever work by a Dutch grower named Peter Van de Werken. Looking to expand the market demand for cut flowers, Van de Werken and his colleagues began experimenting with developing new colors of roses, chrysanthemums, carnations, and a few other flowers. They began with white flowers and initially tried simply spraying the dye on the petals, the way they do with blue poinsettias, but the results were less than satisfactory. Then Van de Werken came up with the idea of having the flowers take up dye through their vascular systems.1

Perhaps you’ve seen rainbow rose seeds for sale that promise to grow into brightly multicolored roses. Unfortunately, rainbow roses need to be created, not grown. As mentioned, rainbow roses are not the result of crossing two different colored roses, and even if they were, hybrid plants do not grow true to seed until they have been stabilized.

Try coloring other flowers in addition to roses to create a lovely rainbow bouquet. White mums and carnations are even better at taking the dye than roses.

What You’ll Need

Equipment / Tools

  • Sharp blade or knife
  • Narrow glass containers, bud vases, or test tubes
  • Plastic bags (optional)
  • Rubber bands (optional)

Materials

  • White roses
  • Food coloring dyes
  • Water

Instructions

Choose Your Roses

Start with as many white roses as you’d like to use. Choose roses as the buds are just starting to open. If the buds are too tight, they may never open, and if the flowers have already unfurled, they will not have sufficient time to absorb the dye before they start to fade.

Shorten the Stems

Make a fresh cut in each stem. If you have long-stem roses, shorten the stems to about 8 to 12 inches, so the dye does not have to travel so far.

Divide Each Stem Vertically

Using a disinfected and sharp blade or knife, divide each stem into vertical sections, one section for each color. Cut about 3 inches up each stem. Don’t make more than three to four sections in each stem or the flowers will be too fragile to survive.

Prepare Food Coloring

Mix your dyes of food coloring and water. Use a good amount of dye (10 to 12 drops) so that the pigment will be saturated enough to really color the petals.

To get the full rainbow, use red, blue, and yellow dyes. They will probably mix a bit on their way up each stem, creating the full rainbow effect and making each rose a little bit different.

Place Roses Into the Dye

Each color dye will go into its own narrow container, such as bud vases or test tubes. Place sections of each stem into the different containers. Be gentle when bending the stem sections apart as you place them into separate containers. Try not to leave them exposed to air and drying out for more than a few minutes.

You could also use plastic bags filled with dye and attach one to each stem section with rubber bands. That way you can stand roses up in a single larger container. That will minimize the bending of the cut stem sections.

Tip

For more vivid colors, use professional floral dyes instead of food coloring. These can be purchased online or from a floral supply company.

 

Store Roses Away From Sun

Leave each stem section in the dye mixture for several days.

Place the roses out of direct sunlight while they are absorbing the dye. The cut flowers are already under stress, and extreme heat or light will weaken them further.

Keep Roses Hydrated

Now be patient. You may notice the petals changing color within a couple of hours, but leaving them in the dye for up to a week will result in the most dramatic colors. Make sure the roses are not left sitting in dry containers once the water/dye solution is all absorbed.

Finish Trimming the Stems

Once the desired effect is obtained, you can cut off the split section of the stems and place your roses in a vase of fresh, room-temperature water and enjoy.

 

How to Make a Rainbow Rose from thoughtco.com

A Real Rose With Petals the Colors of the Rainbow

Have you seen a rainbow rose? It’s a real rose, grown to produce petals in rainbow colors. The colors are so vivid, you may think pictures of the roses are digitally enhanced, but the flowers really are that bright! So, you may be wondering how the colors are made and whether the rose bushes that produce these flowers always bloom in vibrant colors. Here’s how it works and how you can make a rainbow rose yourself.

How Real Rainbow Roses Work

The “rainbow rose” was developed by Peter van de Werken, the owner of a Dutch flower company. While special roses are used, the plants are not bred to produce rich colors. Actually, the rose bush would ordinarily produce white roses, but the stems of the flowers are injected over time with dyes so that petals form in bright single colors. If the flower isn’t treated as it is growing, the blooms are white, not ​rainbow. While the rainbow is a special version of the technique, other color patterns are also possible.

It’s not a science trick you can achieve quite so well with your home rose bush, at least not without a lot of experimentation and expense, because most pigment molecules are either too large to migrate into the petals or else too toxic for the rose to flower. Special proprietary organic dyes said to be made from plant extracts are used to color the roses.

Making Rainbow Roses at Home

While you can’t duplicate the exact effect, you can get a lighter version of a rainbow using a white rose and food coloring. The rainbow effect is much easier to achieve with white or light-colored flowers that aren’t as woody as a rose. Good examples to try at home include carnations and daisies. If it has to be a rose, you can do the same project, but expect it to take longer.

  1. Start with a white rose. It’s best if it is a rosebud because the effect relies on capillary action, transpiration, and diffusion in the flower, which takes some time.
  2. Trim the stem of the rose so that it is not extremely long. It takes more time for the color to travel up a longer stem.
  3. Carefully split the base of the stem into three sections. Make the cuts lengthwise up the stem 1-3 inches. Why three sections? The cut stem is fragile and likely to break if you cut it into more parts. You can use color science to achieve the full rainbow using three colors—red, blue, yellow or yellow, cyan, magenta—depending on what dyes you have available.
  4. Carefully bend the cut sections slightly away from each other. Now, one way to apply the dyes would be to bend the stems into three contains (e.g., shot glasses), each containing a single color of dye and a bit of water, but this is hard to accomplish without breaking the stems. An easier method is to use 3 small plastic baggies, 3 rubber bands, and one tall glass to hold the flower upright.
  5. Into each bag, add a small amount of water and several (10-20) drops of one color of dye. Ease a section of the stem into the bag so that it is immersed in the dyed water, and secure the bag around the stem with a rubber band. Repeat the process with the other two bags and colors. Stand the flower in a glass. Check to make sure each stem section is immersed in the liquid since the flower needs water to live.
  6. You may start to see color in the petals as quickly as half an hour, but expect to let the rose soak up dye overnight or possibly for a couple of days. The petals will be the three colors, plus the mixed colors, for petals receiving water from two parts of the stem at once. This way, you’ll get the whole rainbow.
  7. Once the flower is colored, you can trim off the cut section of stem and keep it in fresh water or a homemade flower food solution.

Helpful Tips

  • Flowers take up warm water more quickly than cold water.
  • Keep the rose away from light and heat, since these can cause it to wilt and die too quickly.
  • If you want to try injecting flowers with natural colors, learn about natural pigments you can use.

SOURCE: Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. “How to Make a Rainbow Rose.” ThoughtCo, Sep. 8, 2021, thoughtco.com/how-to-make-a-rainbow-rose-606168.

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