History

• Geneticists from the Australian company Florigene Ltd., a subsidiary of the Japanese Suntory Group, succeeded in creating blue roses in 2004 by employing RNAi gene replacement techniques.
  
  

Features

• The blue rose contains genes from the pansy and the iris, and it does not contain the traditional rose gene that prevents the production of delphinidin, which generates blue pigment.
  
  

Fun Fact

• The blue rose has been a Holy Grail for gardeners since the British and Belgian horticultural societies offered a 500,000 franc prize for one in 1840.
  
  

Identification

• The blue rose variety synthesized by Florigene is named applause.
  
  

Warning

• For now, blue roses are very expensive. They are sold in Japan for $22 to $33 per stem, which is 10 times more than regular red roses.