Does anyone know of a source for the genetically modified (GM) Purple Carnation in the United Sates? Evidently they have been around for about 10 years and there appear to be advertisements for the cut flowers (dye job?). They may be introduced into Australia.
Purple carnation to be made available to gardeners
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1887888.htm
Here are is a photograph but I am not sure if this is a dye job:
http://www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockphoto.asp?imageid=558208
Mike
Availability of GM Purple Carnation in USA
I found the web site of the Australian company who genetically engineered the purple carnation:
http://www.florigene.com/
It looks like the purple carnations really are purple and not a dye job. Apparently the flowers are only being distributed through the cut flower industry. I will send them an Email and see if they have any plans for selling plants to home gardeners in the USA. It looks like they are also engineering a true blue rose.
Mike
This will be a great new flower for the gardens, please keep us posted.
Robin
You can buy the cut flowers from the florists, but I have not foudn any source in the US so far that sells the plants itself.
Since it a GMO it gonna be patented and since it is sterile it has to be propagate d by cuttings.
I Emailed the North American representative of the Florigene Company and this was his response:
“Florigene does not plan to market our product for home gardens. Currently our product is marketed and sold as a fresh cut flower in the United States.”
From the Florigene web site http://www.florigene.com/ this picture http://www.florigene.com/pdfads/Spring1.pdf should give you an idea of the range of colors which are available. Florigene also has a GM Blue Rose http://www.florigene.com/news/news.php which is spectacular. I don’t believe that the Blue Rose is being sold as yet in any form.
The Purple Carnations http://www.google.com/search?q=Purple+Carnations are available from a number of commercial sources in the United States and Canada as fresh cut flowers. Companies like 1-800Flowers will sell arrangements of several shades of purple http://www.1-800flowers.com/product.do?baseCode=2286&dataset=10254&cm_cid=d10254.
Florigene Moon Series Carnations are sold under the following Trademarks as cut flowers:
Florigene Moonshadow ™ http://www.florigene.com/images/product/moonshadow.jpg
Florigene Moonvista ™ http://www.florigene.com/images/product/moonvista.jpg
Florigene Moonlite ™ http://www.florigene.com/images/product/moonlite.jpg
Florigene Moonshade ™ http://www.florigene.com/images/product/moonshade.jpg
Florigene Moondust ™ http://www.florigene.com/images/product/moondust.jpg
Florigene Moonaqua ™ http://www.florigene.com/images/product/moonaqua.jpg
You might want to Google the Trademarks or try this http://www.google.com/search?q=Florigene+Moon*
A few years ago there was another thread in Dave’s Garden about the Florigene Moon Series (http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/474526/). It is unfortunate that this carnation will not be available to the home gardener in the near future.
Mike
This message was edited Apr 6, 2007 12:50 PM
Thanks Mike for checking into this. It looks like we've got a long wait ahead of us.
Robin