Most probably, when you read this article, you will be at home. I've read somewhere that 80% of all people worldwide are living their lives from their homes during this period of COVID-19. As a result, we are doing our garden, doing chores in the house, cleaning up basements and cellars, painting our houses, or even doing larger construction work. Meanwhile, we get some flowers for ourselves to cheer up our living and working spaces.
Painting At Home
If you look around in the same space as where you are reading this article, you probably notice that there are a lot ‘non-natural’ materials around you. Painted wood in the color that you like, painted walls, nice window frames, etc. We do want to make those materials our own color, according to our preferences. Why not do that to our flowers? If we paint everything in our house, why not paint flowers?
Flower Varieties Don't Come In Every Color
Since I am working for a breeding company, I explain a little about the colors of a flower. As you know, not all flowers can be bred in every color. It has to do with the genetics of specific varieties. Great example; the Dutch Tulip growers are looking for over 400 years for a black tulip. Or a really bright blue Tulip. It isn’t there (yet) and it is extremely hard to make one due to genetics. There's no blue in the genes of Tulips. The same thing with blue Chrysanthemum, it is genetically (not yet) possible to make a blue Chrysanthemum.
I Want What I Want When I Want It (IWWIWWIWI)
So, now we know that we cannot make all flowers in every color that we want. But we also know people want to buy flowers in the color of their choice. If it would exist, they would buy them. Especially the younger generations who are used to finding what they want. The most natural way to make that possible is to use dye in the water to start painting the flowers in the color you like.
There are some companies that specialized in 'painting' flowers in a sustainable way. In the Netherlands, for example, you have Multi Colors, Vip Roses, and Happy Colors. In many markets, we still see that it is not completely acceptable to paint flowers. Many florists are very vocal in their negativity toward the dyeing of flowers. But let’s turn it around. Let’s say that the painting can be used in education. Let’s take some sirup of lemonade and show children that white flowers suck up all colors and then turn into flowers with completely different colors. A nice educational example! (I did that myself, it's a very nice experiment!
I know that we can choose between all the colors we like. Some you will like, and some you don’t. That’s exactly the same with natural flowers. But with new techniques, we can personalize your wishes even more. Take a look at the Chrysanthemum Chic Bubblegum. This kind of dyeing is evolving very rapidly and hopefully will lead to your favorite colored flowers.
When you look around in the room where you are sitting now, do you already have any ideas on what color you want to paint your flowers?
