Improving a Rose

June is the month of the rose and for that reason this story is on a segment of agriculture, overlooked and underreported, the flower industry. From flower stands to flower farms, the popularity of raising flowers for the cut market is blooming, I mean booming. In the case of roses, since hybridization, growers have strived for uniform appearance, less thorns and longer stems. For generations roses have been bred for shelf life and vase life, but not for fragrance that brings joy to life. While it has been reported that the human nose can detect up to 10,000 smells mine doesn't detect any when I bury it in a bouquet, Come-one with all the advances in plant science reported daily, from breeding to biotechnology, can't somebody, somewhere please produces a rose that smells like a rose. They all wilt in a few days anyway. I'll even take more thorns and shorter stems for a moment of sensory pleasure, of breathing deeply of a rose that smells like a rose. I'm Susan Allen and this is Food Forethought.