Tweaking Nature: A Blue Orchid
Tweaking Nature: A Blue Orchid
Remember the search for the fabled blue rose? The story was the stuff of adventure, legend and even of the supernatural. Man seems to be the obsessed with finding not only the rare, but the truly exceptional, and while a blue rose seems to be out of reach for now, one can probably fill one's exclusivity obsession with a blue orchid.
While the color blue is extremely rare in any kind of flower, a blue orchid can either be of only two original varieties: one is the coerulescens variety where the blue pigment is only visible on the lip while the sepals are white and second is the coerulea variety which has blue colored sepals.
With the exception of confidential botanical breeding groups, hybridization procedures for a blue orchid remain out of reach for mere hobbyists or weekend gardeners experimenting with such blue orchid varieties like cattleyas and laelias. But current information on such attempts might prove not only entertaining for would be blue orchid breeders but educational as well.
The Science of Creating a Blue Orchid
There are several rules of thumb to follow when attempting to come up with a blue orchid. Breeders must consider how the achieved blueness behaves or changes when put into an entirely new environment. The idea of course would be to have a blue orchid that remains blue regardless of whatever condition it might find itself in. In choosing blue orchid varieties for such experiments, choose one with significant coloration and preferably cultivated in a natural environment under normal conditions.
It is also important to study how crossing different colors can either achieve the desired blueness or change it. Green hued orchids are said to bring out blueness while it is best to avoid orange colored ones because it brings out the red from a crossed plant.
In studying scientific manuals and studies on the subject, one scientific fact is clearly being thoroughly examined as the key to a blue orchid. This is through understanding the biochemical basis for permutations that allow the emergence of a blue colored flower.
Colors in flowers occur when the pigment anthocyanin interacts with a co-pigment at a specific pH level. Analysis done in laboratories shows that certain combinations and reactions of both pH and alkaline levels can create specific colors. In this case a more alkaline set up will most likely give you a blue orchid while the opposite set up will give you red.
Consequently, the search goes on for the perfect method - a mission where one failure is not enough to give one the blues.