After years of white roses tinged with blue, Australian and Japanese scientists created the first blue rose in 2004 by replacing a pansy gene into a Cardinal de Richelieu rose. The result was a bluish rose called applause, which sold for up to $35 per stem in Japan in 2010. Horticultural societies in Great Britain and Belgium offered 500,000 francs in 1840 to the first person who could produce a blue rose, but no one succeeded until 2004.
For years, “blue” roses have been available from florists, but they were really just white roses tinged with blue. However, in 2004, Australian and Japanese scientists created the first blue rose using gene replacement. The result was technically a blue rose, although most people would consider the flowers to be more lilac or lavender in appearance. Roses occur naturally in many shades of red, pink, yellow and white, but these beauties have never possessed the genetic ability to produce blue pigments. This changed when the Australian company Florigene and the Japanese company Suntory teamed up for 13 years of research and development. They finally unlocked the key to the world’s first blue rose by replacing the delphinidin-producing gene of a pansy into a purplish-red Cardinal de Richelieu rose. The result: a bluish rose called applause.
Roses, it turns out, aren’t always red:
For centuries, blue roses have symbolized unrequited love or the pursuit of the impossible.
Ten thousand Applause Blue Roses were sold in Japan in 2010 for up to $35 (USD) per stem. Roses were not available in North America until late 2011.
Rose growers have fantasized about a real blue rose for centuries. In 1840, horticultural societies in Great Britain and Belgium offered 500,000 francs to the first person able to produce a blue rose. No one could.
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