Abstract: To investigate the effects of ethylene and its inhibitors on flower opening and senescence of cut roses ,. the cut rose flowers of 14 cultivars were treated with ethylene , AOA (aminooxyacetic acid) , an ACC synthase inhibitor , STS (silvet thiosulfate) , an ethylene action inhibitor , and PPOH (cisptopenylphosphnic acid) , an ethylene autocatalysis inhibitor. The results showed that the effects of ethylene on flower opening and senescence of different cut roses were quite different depending on the cultivars : acceleration , inhibition and insensitivity. On the basis of results above , ‘Samantha’and ‘Kardinal’, analogical climacteric cultivars , ‘Prima Donna’, analogical non2climacteric cultivars , and ‘Golden Times’, analogical cultivars which increase during later stage , were used to test the effects of ethylene and its inhibitors on ethylene production. The results
showed that in‘Samantha’, analogical climacteric types , ethylene production was increased by ethylene , acting as ethylene-autocatalysis , while ethylene production was inhibited by ethylene in‘Kardinal’, acting as ethylene-autoinhibition. For the ‘Prima Donna’, no effect was obtained , just like the characters of non2climacteric cut flowers. As to ‘Golden Times’, the reaction is negative feedback. These results above suggest that the responses of cut roses to ethylene are very complicated , and it would be very difficult to classify the climacteric type of cut roses only according to the change of ethylene production during flower opening and senescence.

Key words: Cut roses, Ethylene, Ethylene inhibitors, Flower opening, Senescence