Thanks Mike, the word from the florist was that the roses I bought (to bud) were from two different growers. They didn’t know if they definately did use the herbicide dip, however, they said they if they had of come from one of their other suppliers, called Tamar Valley Roses (http://www.tamarvalleyroses.com.au/), then they definately would have been dipped and they mentioned it ‘just in case’ the others did as well.
Reason I was thinking of ‘Ebb Tide’ as the source of purple for the cut rose was because the florist I spoke to said she would prefer using spray roses. It’s very interesting talking to florists about what they do or don’t like… she also mentioned that she didn’t like the modern HT form very much because it was too high in the centre, even when fully open, and didn’t open fully (I was expecting the no perfume criticism but it didn’t come up). She mentioned it was far easier to work with the older HT (she kept mentioning ‘Mercedes’ 'Mercedes ®' Rose - HMF doesn’t have a photo of it though Botanica has a great one showing a shapely full floribunda-style rose) that openned more rounded-to-flat with a nice full centre. I looked at ‘Big Purple’ too but in the end thought that ‘Ebb Tide’ already had already inherited the best of it, as well as the best of the other ancestors, and might be a better launching position (if that makes sense???) and produce a cut flower rose that needs less chemical intervention in a greenhouse environment (this is important to me… I’m a high school science teacher and senior biology and chemistry teacher and am exposed to more than my fair share of chemicals already… it worries me that I might put myself over that threshold of safe exposure by growing greenhouse roses that need a lot of chemical intervention).
I have 7 greenhouse roses to play with inlcuding ‘Kardinal’, ‘Red Intuition’, ‘Twin’ (call me strange but I have a hankering to see would happen if I put the green hues of ‘Twin’ in with purple of ‘Ebb Tide’ LOL), ‘Happy Anniversay’, ‘Antique Silk’, ‘New Iceberg’, and ‘Eliza’ (I still need a yellow one so with any luck one of the buds from the florist foray will take as will Black Beauty giving me 9 greenhouse varieties to start with and to play with). I’ve never really been interested in greenhouse rose breeding before… because I like my roses in the garden, a different shape and healthy… but it IS interesting to think about and if I have a market then… why not! Here’s another link that people thinking about breeding greenhouse roses might also finding interesting (just too see the range and form of the greenhouse roses being developed here in Australia): http://www.grandiflora.com.au/index.asp . I’ve only just found this website and think it’s very interesting to see what they are producing…
Thanks again.