Roses… timeless symbols of romance that come in a wide variety of colors from rich red through pretty pink to golden yellow and snowy white. But not blue… until now!
Blue roses do not exist in nature, falsely-named blue roses were traditionally created by dyeing white roses, since the flower lacks the specific gene that has the ability to produce “TRUE BLUE” colors.
Do you know that Geneticists from Australia’s Florigene Ltd., a wholly owned (98.5%) subsidiary of Japanese drinks manufacturer Suntory Ltd., first cracked the code for creating blue roses in 2004. Since then, they have been refining the process to the point where true blue roses can be sold to a public eager to possess the once “impossible dream”.
So the Florigene scientists says that by inserting genes from the common Pansy and Iris into Rose DNA while at the same time switching off a Rose gene that prevented the production of the blue pigment known as “delphinidin”, the legendary flower of love will be able to synthesize and express a full range of hues from palest baby blue to deep navy.