Whitney's Fabulous Flowers

Whitney Bromberg Hawkings is the o-so-glamorous Co-Founder and CEO of the booming online floristry business, FLOWERBX. Rooted in luxury, the company has a stylish client roster, supplying flowers to the likes of Dior, Bottega Veneta, Jimmy Choo and Tom Ford - and it's easy to see why with their gorgeous blooms.

The Net-a-Porter of the flower business, having conquered the UK, their impressive business plan sees impending expansion into Europe, Russia and the Middle East. Collaborating with other leaders in their field - namely the fashion industry, recent partnerships include Laura Bailey as well as London-based womenswear designer, Emilia Wickstead. Here, the Bailey Bud Vase Collection, consisting of 5 beautiful hand-blown bud vases is best accompliant to any mantle piece and with the Emilia Wickstead Collection - think sleek, cylindrical statement brushed brass vases.

Felicity Carter: Tell us about FLOWERBX...?
Whitney Bromberg Hawkings: After working for TOM FORD for 19 years and feeling frustrated with the cost and inconsistency of the flowers I was buying and sending, I wanted to create a branded floral offering. Also, as a working Mom, I buy everything online. My weekly groceries are from Ocado, my clothes from Net-a-Porter or Matches.com and everything else from Amazon. Flowers were the one thing I couldn't buy, in a simple, chic way, online.

I started FLOWERBX a little over two years ago and am happy that it has resonated with so many people, so quickly and that the growth has been so significant.

FC: Why flowers?
WBH: The floral industry is one that hasn't been disrupted and for which there is no real, branded on-line solution. I am so happy that we have been able to create what I hope will be the first international flower brand.

FC: Who is your customer?

WBH: Our customer is a time-starved, discerning individual who is looking for quality and value. He or she likes the convenience of online shopping but is also looking for an exceptionally smooth and curated luxury experience.

FC: How has the brand evolved?

WBH: While we started out as purely an online flower delivery service, we were quickly asked to apply our clean, branded aesthetic to events for a lot of our individual and B2B clients. While this was initially not something we had intended to do, it was impossible to refuse both the sales' potential and the incredible marketing and exposure we get from doing events.

Vases were an obvious evolution to selling flowers, and we have been able to provide elegant and simple solutions for people that have, until now, been slightly fearful of "doing their own flowers."

Why hoverflies prefer Sikkim flowers to those in Bengaluru

If you were a hoverfly, part of a species that is among the most important pollinators in the world, flowers in Sikkim may perhaps be more attractive than even the ones found in Sweden or Bengaluru.

The simplest of the scientific questions — how does one of the most important pollination species in the world select its flowers — has lead to not only greater understanding of the pin-head-sized brains of hoverflies, but could also hold key to the protection of wild pollinators.

A global collaboration involving researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden, Flinders University in Australia, and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bengaluru set out to find these answers.

The teams led by Shannon Olsson (NCBS) and Karin Nordström (Uppsala University) followed hoverflies for months and patiently observed them.

The scientists tabulated the behaviour of hoverflies in tropical climes of outskirts of Bengaluru, mountainous northern Sikkim, and hemiboreal (landscapes close to the subarctic regions) of Uppsala, Sweden.

The observations — which were published recently in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the United States — showed that the tiny brains of hoverflies process multiple, complex factors to determine which flower they pollinate.

Crunching over a million data points, researchers found that combinations of visual clues (colour, shape, size), flower scents (more than 96 volatile chemical compounds) and immediate environment (humidity, carbon dioxide) determine attractiveness for, say Bengaluru hoverfly over its Swedish counterpart.

They then created artificial flowers (lures) based on what hoverflies in each place ‘liked' to test their hypothesis.

The study found that ‘Sikkim lure' worked well in other places, while, ‘Bengaluru lures' were "less attractive" to hoverflies from other places.

Dr. Olsson hazarded a guess, "In Sikkim, the hoverfly is the major pollinator as bees do not thrive in high altitudes. Wild flowers developed ways to make them as universally attractive as possible. Whereas, in tropical Bengaluru, flowers have a choice of pollinators and do not have to try hard to attract hoverflies in particular."

Hard to find in Bengaluru

During the study, the team realised that hoverflies were hard to find in urban Bengaluru, leading to the start of research to find the link between hoverfly populations and air pollution.

The study, says Dr. Olsson, can give insights on reversing the decline of wild pollinators, which are critical to the nearly $577-billion worth of crops globally.

"There is a thought on creation of pollination gardens and other spaces to revive pollinator populations. But, these ideas cannot be broad-based, because what works for European insect pollinators will not work in India. Studying these difference will help," she said.

While arresting the decline in pollinator population will need lowering the use of pesticides, decreasing monoculture agricultural practices, and increasing natural vegetation, Dr. Nordström said, "It is also incredibly important to understand the natural ecology of wild pollinators, not just hoverflies, so we can make informed choices when planning strategies."

Bootstrapped Farmgirl Flowers Is Taking On The Flower Industry

Christina Stembel, 39, grew up on an Indiana corn and soybean farm and didn't go to college. Now she's building Farmgirl Flowers in San Francisco, which will clock $15 million in revenue this year. When she launched the company in 2010, the $18 billion U.S. flower industry was dominated by four big players who offered huge selections, mostly made up of flowers shipped from overseas to small shops where about 40% of the inventory wound up in the trash because it spoiled before it could be sold. Stembel's strategy: source flowers locally and slash waste by selling a very limited number of arrangements direct to consumers from her website. She wraps her bouquets in distinctive burlap donated by nearby coffee roasters. When she tried to raise money, she was dismissed by VCs, but she managed to bootstrap the business and now has investors approaching her. In this interview, which has been edited and condensed, she explains the impact legal marijuana is having on her business and why she thinks the company could ultimately produce $1 billion in revenue.

Susan Adams: Where did you get the idea for Farmgirl Flowers?

Christina Stembel: I was director of alumni relations at Stanford Law School and during the economic downturn in 2007 and 2008, we were doing a lot of events but the budgets were getting cut. We were spending between $100 and $200 on centerpiece flower arrangements. I started to research why the flowers cost so much, and I found that just four companies did three quarters of the flower business.

Adams: What made you think you could compete with them?

Stembel: I'd send flowers to my mom in Indiana and I was always left dissatisfied with the whole process, not just the product. I spent an hour online looking at options, to find the least ugly one. Then I'd spend $80 to $90 on that, and when she received it, it wouldn't look anything like what I ordered. There's even a hashtag, #flowerfail. My research also showed that younger consumers were purchasing fewer flowers.

Adams: Why would you enter a shrinking market?

Stembel: The most recent innovation was in the '90s with ProFlowers, which started sourcing from South America instead of North America. They didn't do anything to fix the problems I saw.

Adams: What role did waste play in your decision to start a flower company?

Stembel: Flower shops waste between 40% and 60% of their inventory. They have so many options and the owner doesn't know what people are going to order so the flowers go bad. I came up with a model that I thought would solve all the problems. Instead of having 100 choices, we offer only a few curated options. You just get to pick the size you want. We have less than 1% waste.

Adams: How did you know your model would work as a business?

Stembel: I didn't know, but I thought it was a great idea. I did one focus group before I quit my job. I gathered almost 50 people and showed them a bouquet I made versus three or four from the top four florists. Eighty-six percent of the people in the focus group chose my bouquet.

Adams: What are margins like?

Stembel: I think at scale, we can get them to 25%. We're at a 2.9% net profit margin now but that's because we're investing all of our profit back into the company so we can grow. If we weren't doing that we'd have a 10% to 12% net profit. 1800Flowers had a profit margin of 8% last year.

Adams: Was there anything else you considered before starting the business?

Stembel: It had to check four boxes for me. With no college degree and no network, I had to be able to bootstrap. I wanted the ability to scale big if I was going to work that hard at something. It needed to solve a real problem. And I wanted to do something good in the world, which for me was sourcing flowers locally.

Adams: Why did you care about local sourcing?

Stembel: In my research, I learned that 50% of U.S. flower farmers had gone out of business. Growing up in the agricultural industry, it was important to me to support local agriculture.

Adams: How did you fund your launch?

Stembel: I had $49,000 in my bank account. I thought it was a lot of money. It's not. But I'd been at Stanford for seven-and-a-half years and I thought, if it's not now, it's never. I gave myself two years.

Adams: Where did you get your flowers?

Stembel: San Francisco has a great flower market where I could get great prices for flowers in small quantities directly from wholesalers and directly from farmers. But one of the early problems I ran into was that some farmers wouldn't sell to me. They'd only sell to wholesalers.

Adams: Why wouldn't farmers sell to you?

Stembel: Because their dad didn't and their grandpa didn't. A lot of them were like, this Internet thing, I don't know if it's going to be long term.

Adams: How did you market the business?

Stembel:  I would take flower arrangements to coffee shops in San Francisco with little marketing cards on them. Then I'd go back to the shops and see how many cards had been taken to see if it was worth the $20 flower cost.

Adams: How was your first year?

Stembel: I did $56,000 in revenue. The second year was $276,000. The third year I started to be able to spend more money on marketing with Facebook and some with Yelp. That took us to $920,000 the third year.

Getting to the root of problem with rhododendron

Theresa H. of Santa Rosa asks: The leaves of my rhododendron are curling inward and turning brown, and the plant is wilting. What's going on?

Phytophthora cinnamoni (root rot), is a root rot disease which is usually fatal and often kills a plant very quickly.

The symptoms are a sudden collapse of parts of the plant, or the entire plant, during the growing season. Check the roots and cut into the infected part of the stem. The disease is characterized by the roots being a deep brown color instead of white, like healthy roots should be.

If you scrape away the bark at ground level you will find the cambium layer below the bark has been stained a dark reddish-brown. The disease is caused by inadequate drainage and warm or hot soil temperatures. The combination of these two is often fatal to rhododendrons.

It is most common in areas with hot summers but can occur anywhere with poor drainage. Phythopthora cinnamomii is most active at a soil temperature of 65-75 degrees. Plants in containers are particularly susceptible, especially if watered overhead.

Be sure that the planting area is well prepared with coarse organic matter to ensure good drainage and aeration in the soil. Freshly composted bark has been shown to have some root-rot resistant properties. Packaged mixes for rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias would be good to use.

Make sure that the soil where the rhododendrons are growing does not become compacted by people or animals walking over it.

Growing rhododendrons in shade and mulching with organic matter will help keep the soil temperature down.

If you have a heavy clay soil, the best thing to do is to plant above soil level, either in raised beds or by mounding up the soil around the root of the plant.

Tom M. of Windsor asks: I would like to use my cold frame this year and grow a few greens, other than the usual Swiss chard, lettuces, etc. Any suggestions?

With a little protection from the elements, you can keep harvesting fresh greens well into fall and winter. Choose frost-hardy crops that continue growing during the transition to colder weather and shorter daylight hours.

Plant them early enough that they're nearly mature by the time the day length drops below 10 hours.

Here are a few good choices for the more unusual fall and winter greens, along with timing tips to help you get the most out of your greenhouse or coldframe.

Claytonia, also known as Miner's Lettuce, is one of the most cold-tolerant of salad greens and is hardy to about 0 degrees. It is easy to grow, is not bothered by moderate frosts and you can get multiple harvests over the course of winter.

The heart-shaped leaves have a wild flavor, and have a crunchy, succulent texture that is especially delicious.

Each stem has tiny white edible flowers. Sow seeds directly into the ground about 1/2 inch apart, 1/4 inch deep, in rows 12 inches apart, thinning to 4-6 inches apart. You can even plant in succession.

Mache, also called corn salad, is a very hardy, low-growing plant that produces tight rosettes of thick glossy leaves hardy to 5 degrees.

Late-blooming flowers worth the wait for your garden

You can't avoid flowers in the springtime. Most plants burst naturally into bloom as warm weather returns, with the flowers producing fruits and setting seed that will ripen over the summer and germinate during the following seasons.

But that doesn't mean you have to forgo flowers in the fall. Annuals will keep pumping out blooms until cold weather turns them off. And perennials? Well, let's take a look at just some of the most dazzling late bloomers.

No fall flower garden would be complete without hybrid Japanese anemones (Anemone x hybrida). Around Sonoma County, they bloom in September, with some sporadic follow-up bloom in late September to early October. They grow 3 to 4 feet tall on slender stems in a sunny to partly shady site with some summer water to get them through the seasonal drought. They'll reward you in September with the most charming 3-inch-wide flowers with a cluster of bright yellow stamens in the centers. Depending on the cultivar, the petals may be white, pink, or purplish pink, but my favorite is a variety called "September Charm" with clear shell pink petals that are strikingly beautiful. Kept watered, the anemones will spread into a wide stand that produces a sea of these exquisite blossoms.

In 1961, botanists changed the name of the Chrysanthemum genus to Dendranthema, which caused such a horticultural uproar that botanists restored the name to Chrysanthemum again in 1995. Thank goodness, because our fall gardens just wouldn't be the same without our mums — possibly the most beloved of all the fall flowers, all exhibiting typical fall colors: rusts, ochres, white, reddish browns, and yellows. We cut them and make big, poofy vases full. Ladies use them for corsages at football games. They are the essence of fall in a flower. It's almost impossible to pick a favorite cultivar because there are so many flower forms of this perennial: cushion, pompon, button, decorative, single, spoon, quill, anemone, spider, cascade and exhibition. You choose.

Did you know that there are a range of autumn-blooming crocuses? So this genus is not only the first up and flowering in the spring, but has representatives that are the last to go to bed in the fall. One of the most popular species is Crocus sativus, the saffron crocus. The late September flower is pale pink to purplish mauve and the orange, feathery stigma, when dried, is our precious culinary saffron — which is why it's no longer found in the wild. Saffron hunters plucked it to death. But it's widely grown in cultivation.

Although not particularly showy, Kirengeshoma palmata, commonly called waxbells, is an interesting native of the mountains of Japan. It makes a 3-to 4-foot mound of large, maple-like leaves, and hangs out pale yellow, shuttlecock-shaped flowers in September. It likes shade and moist soil, so plant it where you can water it during summer's drought.

Among trees, the floss silk tree (Chorisia speciosa) blooms with pink, rose, or purple star-like flowers in September and its subsequent fruits burst open into cottony masses of fluff. It likes full sun and some summer water and grows into a tall tree with a studded trunk. It's perfectly suited to our climate.

The Franklin Tree (Franklinia alatamaha) is persnickety, like its namesake Benjamin Franklin, and takes extra care to grow. It was discovered in Georgia by John Bartram, a friend of Franklin's, who brought it to Philadelphia. It disappeared from the wild in 1790, and all Franklin Trees since are clones of Bartram's rescue. It's an exquisitely beautiful small tree, especially when its last white blooms in September are seen against its reddish purple senescing leaves. I tried growing it in Sebastopol, but it lasted only a couple of years. Maybe you'll have more luck. It will be worth the effort.

From October to December, the Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo "Compacta"), a cousin of the madrone, hangs out pendulous clusters of white, urn-shaped flowers and bright red strawberry-like fruits at the same time, making quite a show. It's an evergreen, like its cousin, and loves our coastal climate.

Among shrubs, definitely plant a Blue Mist (Caryopteris x clandonensis "Heavenly Blue"). It's compact, growing from 2 to 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall, likes full sun, and produces scads of deep blue fringed flowers from August until December. Give it some summer water to keep it going strongly for its fall display.

Of course, nature in her profuse enthusiasm for flowers in all seasons, has more: escallonia, camellia, gardenia, chaste tree, and others, but the suggestions in this article may give you ideas for plantings this fall or next spring that mean your garden will not peter out just when harvest season rolls around. Your Thanksgiving table will always need a centerpiece, n'est pas?

Animals spring in to flower show

EVERY spring, Janelle Noble likes to share her joy at seeing her daffodils bloom.

"We try to involve all our pets and horses," she says. "Our Arab mare is very gentle and lovely, and was quite accepting of the garland of flowers."

Noble, pictured here adorned in flowers last spring at her family's Claremont farm, began growing daffodils for show about five years ago. She began by planting daffodils in pots around her home and now "they're everywhere – scattered in garden beds, pots and in my husband's vegetable patch, though he's come to terms with that now".

The ebullient gardener, who is also the Mona Pavilions manager, produced some award-winning daffodils last year, but she isn't resting on her laurels. Her daffodils are again contenders for awards in the Claremont Daffodil, Camellia and Spring Flower show today and tomorrow.

"Showing flowers isn't intimidating. It's a laid-back and fun environment," she says. "People don't just take daffodils, they take all sorts of spring flowers.

"There will be a magnificent display of camellias. Walking into the showroom is like taking a lovely breath of fresh air. You know it's the start of spring when you see all the vibrant colours."

Sans flowers, women lose out on medicinal values

Women wearing flowers is a common sight in the country, particularly in South India, but the tradition is vanishing. Though the women in western countries are accepting the medicinal and aromatic values in wearing flowers, our women are slowly abandoning the time-tested convention and are rushing to the cosmetic dermatological clinics, wasting time and money.

Not only for beauty, there are several benefits and values in wearing flowers. Flowers are a symbol of love, good luck, happiness and prosperity. Besides this, there are several aromatic values of each flower. According to experts in flower therapy some flowers could prevent hair loss and help grow healthy hair and also help in prevent dandruff.

Noted women welfare organisation She Association of India found fault with the educational institutions, which are not allowing the girls wearing flowers into schools. "After wearing flowers the women definitely look very beautiful. Every flower has its own qualities and values. However, the women in the present era are not following the habit. According to the Vedic culture, wearing flowers represents love, good luck, happiness and prosperity.

In several "ithihasas", it is mentioned that wearing flowers is believed to bring happiness and prosperity in the women's house. Meanwhile, the girls and ladies are of late most habituated to deodorants instead of wearing flowers," lamented M Sree Devi , President, She Association. By wearing flowers like Jasmine, the wife and husband relations will be more strong and would  give a pleasant and romantic mood to the spouse.

The tiredness, other professional and daily tensions will automatically vanish with the aromatic values of jasmine. However, the women, now a days are not following the age-old suggestions 62-year-old B Padmavathi underlined the importance of wearing flowers. There are no festivals or marriages without flowers. At least, the 50- plus women wear any one flower on the head, but the present generation  are not following this, she lamented.

If, one observes, in mythological books, Shakunthala, wore flowers not only in her hair,  but also on the hands and also as garlands as the flowers will boost up the entire body. " Flowers should not be kept in refrigerators but should be worn soon after they are plucked" internationally renowned Professor in Vedic Ecology and Flower Remedies B Lakshmi told The Hans India.

Flowers for a fall table

One of my first jobs was a floral assistant. I worked weddings most Saturdays through high school, pinning boutonnieres while most of my friends were sleeping in. After college, it became quite clear that I was built to be an entrepreneur and would thrive working for myself. I pinched pennies working a few jobs until I was able to pull together the funds open my flower shop. I owned and operated Peppertree Floral here in Bloomington for over 10 years and loved nearly every minute of it. As my kiddos got older the schedule became increasingly more difficult to maintain, so sadly I moved on. Now, years later, I still find myself yearning to clip some stems and create colorful arrangements for my home.

This month I got the itch and decided to take a trip to Harvest Moon Flower Farm. The owner, Linda Chapman, walked me through the farm and handpicked some blooms for me to work with. The farm was an inspiration. Fall colors cascading through the rows, sunflowers, dahlias and zinnia in shades of orange, brown and red.

Arranging flowers can seem intimidating, but there are a few things to keep in mind to make flower arranging a cinch.

Buy quality

Start by purchasing high quality flowers. When you get them home, give them a snip and let them drink in a bucket of warm water.

Pick the right size vase

It's easy to get frustrated when your flowers keep slumping to the side, but you can avoid this by choosing a container that isn't too big. If you are doing a tall arrangement gather the stems in your hand and make note of how wide the neck of the vase needs to be to accommodate. With a short, squat arrangement, like this one, look to the flowers heads. The vase should be slightly smaller than all the blooms pulled together. Don't overthink it. If the first vessel you pick doesn't work, just pull the flowers out and start again with a different vase.

Start with the greens

For your blooms to stand up you'll need a sturdy foundation. Create this with ample greenery. The greens don't need to be fancy. In this arrangement, I nipped some branches off my baptisia plant in my garden. As long as it's leafy it'll do the trick, but don't overstuff it. You still need room for the flowers.

Big blooms first

Create the shape of your arrangement with the larger blooms. Think of these flowers as an outline. It was clear the café au lait dahlia was the showstopper for this arrangement so I chose where to put that stem first, followed by the dark chocolate sunflowers. Try to space them throughout the vase without being too symmetrical. Nature is not perfect, so your flower arrangement shouldn't be either.

Medium blooms second

Next, I placed the peach dahlias, gold zinnia and fuscia cockscomb. Use these buds to fill out the arrangement and give it structure. Turn the arrangement as you work so you don't create it one sided. You'll want to work all stems toward a central point to give the bouquet a natural look.

Finish with the filler

Use your small filler flowers, in this case feather Celosia and marigolds, to fill any empty spots. This is another opportunity to give your arrangement shape. Wispy tendrils or woody branches can be added to make the arrangement more romantic or impressive.

Now that my arrangement is complete I can enjoy it at my dining table. I added votives and tall glass candle sticks to add to the ambiance. Fall is not the time of year most people think of cut flowers, but it's a wonderful time to bring those autumnal colors to your table.

Next time you need to jazz up a table, don't think twice. Just roll up your sleeves and make something beautiful.

Iconic Carlsbad Flower Fields Open For 2017 Season

Although the official first day of spring isn't until March 20, it's unofficially the start of springtime in San Diego County. The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch are now open.

Mother Nature has transformed the rolling hills of North County into one of the most beautiful displays of blooming flowers for decades. The nearly 50 acres of Giant Tecolote Ranunculus flowers that make up The Flower Fields in Carlsbad are in bloom for six to eight weeks each year, bringing the famous fields back to life.

This year, The Flower Fields will be open to the public March 1 through Mother's Day on May 14.

In addition to strolling through the fields, visitors can enjoy a variety of other family-friendly activities at the site, including an open-air wagon ride through The Flower Fields on an antique tractor. The ride includes audio commentary of the history of the famous fields.

Among other activities, families can mine for gemstones, see a historic poinsettia display, watch gardening demos and navigate through a sweet pea blossoms maze. The Flower Fields, which feature a nursery and gift shop, will also host various special events weekly, including arts and crafts shows, live musical performances, Kids' Day on April 2, Easter Sunday Service on April 16 and the annual Mother's Day Celebration on May 14.

The Flower Fields have bloomed in North County for more than 85 years, when Luther Gage, an early settler, brought Ranunculus seeds to the area and planted them in his fields next to Frank Frazee's small vegetable farm in South Oceanside.

Today, this annual burst of color has become one of nature's ways of announcing the arrival of spring in Southern California. The stunning fields attract more than 160,000 visitors every season.

The beautiful flower with an ugly past

It looks simple - a pretty blue cornflower - but this plant is causing controversy in Austria. It's the chosen flower of the far-right Freedom Party, even though it was once associated with the Nazis.

Dieter Dorner takes a long sip of his Gemischtes, a mix of dark beer and lager, and smiles.

We are sitting in an inn in Untersiebenbrunn, a little town east of Vienna, where he is a councillor for the far-right Freedom Party. Over a meal of sausage, chips and locally grown white asparagus, he tells me about a planned dance.

In true Austrian fashion, it's to be a ball - the local Freedom party's first Cornflower Ball, Der Kornblumenball.

"We've never had a Freedom Party Ball in Untersiebenbrunn before," he explains. "So we said to ourselves, let's do something, let's have a ball. The band will play dance music. My favourite is the slow waltz."

The ball was arranged last September, but the timing is felicitous, because these days the Freedom Party in Untersiebenbrunn has a lot to celebrate. In the first round of voting in Austria's presidential election in April, 53% of people here voted for the Freedom Party candidate, Norbert Hofer.

Dotted through the town's leafy streets are the blue Freedom Party campaign placards and posters for the Kornblumenball, featuring a silhouette of a dancing couple in evening dress.

"Hasn't there been some controversy about the blue cornflower?" I ask. "Something to do with the Nazis?" Dieter shakes his head. "The cornflower is simply the Freedom Party flower and we like it," he says.

"To discuss what happened 80 years ago, or what didn't happen or perhaps happened doesn't bring us forward. There is certainly nothing deliberately nasty about it."

But other Austrians are not so sure.

"The cornflower is a complicated symbol," Vienna historian, Bernhard Weidinger, tells me. "It was the German Kaiser Wilhelm's favourite flower, and was used by pan-German nationalists in the 19th Century.

"Then between 1934 and 1938, when the Nazis were a banned party in Austria, it was the secret symbol they used to wear in order to recognise each other."

Nowadays, it's traditional for Austrian MPs to wear a flower in their buttonholes at the opening of parliament, he explains. The colour of the Freedom Party is blue, so they wear a cornflower.

"You are not a neo-Nazi if you wear a cornflower," he continues. "But it is fair to say that the Freedom Party cultivates a certain ambivalence when it comes to the past."

Their presidential hopeful, Norbert Hofer, continues to face sharp criticism about his occasional choice of floral decoration. In response to a question last week, he declared that he wanted nothing to do with the Nazis, and wouldn't let them take away things like the cornflower.

GM petunias could harm wildlife in Britain's gardens, warn campaigners

Genetically modified petunias which are being illegally sold in Britain could have 'unexpected' effects on gardens, and may even harm wildlife, campaigners have warned.

Defra has launched an investigation after learning that unauthorised flowering plants which are banned in the European Union are on sale in Britain.

They are working with the GM Inspectorate at the Animal & Plant Health Agency and the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) to identify garden centres and nurseries which are selling the petunias and seeds, so that the plants can be destroyed. 

Petunias are one of the most popular bedding plants in Britain, adding a swathe of colourful flowers to borders. But orange varieties including African Sunset, Pegasus Orange Morn, Pegasus Orange, Pegasus Table Orange, Potunia Plus Papay, Go!Tunia Orange, Bonnie Orange, Sanguna Patio Salmon and Sanguna Salmon were found to be genetically modified.

It is thought they had their genes spliced with maize to increase the colour although their origin is unknown.

The campaign group GM Freeze said that genetically modified plants in the past had been shown to harm butterfly populations, as well as creating 'super-weeds.'

Liz O'Neill, Director of GM Freeze, said: "Genetic engineering can have many unexpected effects so without proper testing it is impossible to say that these flowers will not cause any harm.

"DNA is not Lego and GM controls are not an optional extra, whether you are growing food, flowers or anything else.

"They have spread across the UK market unlabelled and unnoticed. That shows a horrifying disregard for regulation which needs to be thoroughly investigated. "I would certainly suggest that avoiding orange coloured petunias. There are plenty of naturally orange flowers to fill your hanging baskets."

The  EU-wide investigation was sparked at the end of April after the Finnish food standards authority Evira discovered that cuttings and seeds imported from Germany and the Netherlands had been genetically modified.

"Petunia flowers cannot be orange by nature," said a spokesman for Evira "In the plants we found 'foreign' material: genes that do not occur naturally in the plant's DNA.

"We believe the orange color probably comes from a maize gene, a gene more often used to get a tone of orange. Evidence for GM is irrefutable."

The HTA said they now had evidence the petunias were in Britain. The African Sunset variety in particular is available from many UK suppliers.

A spokesman for the HTA said "The HTA has alerted the UK authorities to their existence in the UK supply chain for these bedding plants. 

"Every effort is now being made to trace the plants so that they can be withdrawn from sale.

"We do not yet know how widespread they are in the UK supply chain. The production of genetically modified petunias is not authorised in the EU, and any plants and seed will be destroyed.

Only one genetically modified maize variety is authorised for cultivation in the EU.

Some GM blue carnation varieties have been authorised for use as a cut flower only in the EU, but may not be cultivated in the EU countries.

Genetically modified maize, soy and rape with EU authorisation may be imported into the EU for use in feed and food.

But all genetically modified products must be labelled so that the consumer knows they are buying GM.

A spokesman for Defra said: "An investigation is ongoing. It is a team effort and we are reaching out to trade bodies to find out where these plants are.

"If we find them they will be destroyed. "It's not illegal for gardeners to own them, so if they have been planted homeowners do not have to pull them up and they will die out in the winter."

The Scientific Feat That Birthed the Blue Chrysanthemum

Blue may seem like a common color in nature. After all, our brilliant sky is blue. But it turns out, the color blue is pretty hard to come by. Not only are there no insects or animals that produce an actual blue pigment (blue creatures create the color through optical tricks) fewer than 10 percent of the world's 280,000 flowering plants have blue blossoms, reports Kristen V. Brown at Gizmodo. But that may soon change.

Researchers in Japan inserted two genes into chrysanthemums, creating the first blue blooms of the flower, which more commonly takes on the colors red, orange, yellow, purple or white. As Elizabeth Pennisi at Science reports, the creation of blue flowers involves some pretty complex plant chemistry. Pennisi writes:

To make chrysanthemums blue, researchers from the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization inserted a gene from the bluish Canterbury bell into red mums. The presence of this gene modified anthocyanin in the mums, producing purplish flowers. To achieve a truer blue, the researchers added a second gene from the butterfly pea into the mix. That did the trick, producing blue-violet mums. They report their results in the journal Science Advances.

So why make blue mums? As Brown reports, the flower market has a voracious appetite for new colors and blue versions of popular flowers could be a boon the industry. Blue in particular has been a sought-after color. Breeders have found it almost impossible to produce the hue through traditional techniques. In 1840, horticultural societies of Britain and Belgium offered a 500,000-franc reward to anyone who could breed a truly blue rose, a prize that was never claimed. In 2005, researchers finally produced a blue rose through gene editing, Brown writes, which initially sold for ten times the price of normal roses.

It's likely blue mums will be just as popular. "Chrysanthemums, roses, carnations and lilies are major floricultural plants, [but] they do not have blue flower cultivars," Naonobu Noda, lead-author of the study tells Brown. He also says similar techniques can be used to make blue versions of other flowers. "None has been able to generate blue flower cultivar by general breeding technique."

But it's not just about horticultural novelty. As Rachael Lallensack at Nature reports, learning how to produce blue could lead to new manufacturing methods for the pigments.

Don't expect blue mums in the garden department anytime soon. As Pennisi reports, before the plants can be commercialized the researchers need to produce a version that cannot reproduce and spread in the environment. Since they are considered genetically modified organisms, the blue flowers may also be banned in parts of Europe and other places with restrictions on GMOs.

Though it technically falls on the blue scale, there is some criticism that the new chrysanthemum sits on the violet or lavender end of the blue spectrum. But don't be blue about it: Noda hopes to achieve an even more azure hue, and to accomplish this there is still more to do. Scientists need a better understanding of the mechanisms that control the color of blue flowers that really makes them pop. Until then, we may need to accept a little purple with our blue.