Pigments

Following up on the article, "Another Approach to Red Irises" in the January
BAIS referring to potential analogous research, it appears the work with
transgenic "F 3', 5' H" enzyme colors in roses may have surfaced in commercial
supplies here in Asheville.

I was in a doctor's office recently and behind the receptionist was a bouquet
of a lovely roses.

The color was startling, and I assume this was an example of the "blue rose"
work in progress.  The flowers were near white with a fringe of a soft, lovely
violet-blue or mauve toning, a totally unexpected color in roses prior to this
new lab-generated change in rose genetics.

Then a couple days ago the miniature roses at the local grocery outlet's
flower shop had a number of plants of a beautiful tiny mauve-colored rose.  I
don't ever recall anything as far from red toward blue in a rose before as
these displayed.  I assume these, also, were products of the transgenic work.
No variety names were in evidence, I'm sorry to say.

I know that carnations from parallel work with that genus have been on the
market for a couple years, almost the color of some of our red-violet irises,
but these roses were comparable in color to some of Keppel's Lotus Land X
Fogbound seedlings he has introduced in the last few years.

Now, if we could just interest some of those labs to do the reverse work with
TB irises, we might move strongly toward the red potential in this kind of
work.

I will be especially interested to hear if any of the Ernst-Cooley red
products are seen in Portland.  The OSU-Cooley work spearheaded by Rick Ernst
is of enormous interest.

Neil Mogensen  Reg 4  z 7 (and snowing!) in western NC

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