Finally, A True Blue Rose Exists

Japanese researchers at Suntory Global Innovation Center have successfully created true blue roses by inserting four genes from other blue flower species into pink roses, enabling them to produce both blue pigments and colorless helper molecules called co-pigments that stabilize the color. Previous attempts in 2004 produced only purplish roses because the flowers lacked the co-pigment molecules necessary to achieve a true blue hue. The genetically modified roses maintained their blue color for seven years in greenhouse tests and three years in field trials in Colombia.