Characterization of yield, sensitivity to Botrytis cinerea and antioxidant content of several rose species suitable for edible flowers.

Abstract Yield, susceptibility to Botrytis and levels of antioxidants are important traits of fresh edible flowers. These parameters were determined for 12 garden rose cultivars selected as edible flowers: ‘Mount Shasta’, ‘San Francisco’, ‘Brandy’, ‘Maxim’, ‘Sweet Surrender’, ‘Amadeus’, ‘Eterna’, ‘Trier 2000’, ‘English sachet’, ‘Golden Celebration’, ‘Pat Austin’ and ‘Katharina Zeimet’. Yield of most cultivars ranged between 80 and 300 flowers/plant (for 64 weeks), which is higher than that produced by cultivars suitable for cut flowers. The yield makes the selected garden cultivars suitable for commercial growth as edible flowers. A range of sensitivity to Botrytis has been recorded among the cultivars. The cultivars ‘Golden Celebration’ and ‘Katharina Zeimet’ exhibited the highest sensitivity, while the cultivars ‘English Sachet’, ‘Eterna’, ‘San Francisco’ and ‘Maxim’ exhibited the lowest sensitivity to Botrytis infection. The levels of hydrophillic antioxidants of all cultivars were higher than the hydrophobic antioxidants levels. The cultivar ‘San Francisco’ contained the highest hydrophilic antioxidants and the highest anthocyanine levels. No correlation between antioxidants levels and resistance to Botrytis has been observed. Based on our results we suggest that since the cultivars ‘Golden Celebration’ and ‘Katarina Ziemet’ are highly sensitive to Botrytis infection, they are not suitable to be developed as edible fresh flowers. All other cultivars have a potential to be developed as fresh edible flowers with high antioxidant capacity, however some of the cultivars will require postharvest pretreatments to reduce Botrytis infection.