Rainbow Rose

The rainbow rose is a rose that has had its petals artificially coloured. The method exploits the rose's natural processes by which water is drawn up the stem. By splitting the stem and dipping each part in different coloured water, the colours are drawn into the petals resulting in a multicolored rose. With these changes to the rose, it causes them to not live as long as an uncoloured rose. Besides roses, other cut flowers like the chrysanthemum, carnation, hydrangea, and some species of orchids can also be colored using the same method.

History
The uncomplicated process has been known for more than a millennium. Several companies have moved to patent the process. It appears they have been partially successful. It will be up to the courts to decide if the process can be patented.

Cultivars
Research showed that the best cultivar to use is 'Vendala', a cream coloured Hybrid Tea cultivated in the Netherlands, Colombia and Ecuador, as this cultivar absorbs the different colourants perfectly[citation needed]. 'Vendela' is a cream Hybrid Tea, with a flower diameter of 6 cm in full bloom and a stem length of 40 to 100 cm. The rose is not scented. Other cultivars that can be used for this colouring process are Rosa La Belle and Rosa Avalanche+. However, these cultivars rainbow are not as bright as Vendela. Some vendors use the cultivar name to describe their products, e.g. Vendela Rainbow Roses - the same is true for other dyed roses (e.g. Rose Avalanche Crystal Green.

Colour combinations
The Original Rainbow Rose has the 7 colours of the rainbow and this is the most popular rose in this category. However there are also the tropical variant with combinations of red/pink and yellow, and the ocean variant with combinations of green and blue. Other colour combinations are also possible, though black and white are impossible to make.