Are Blue Roses Real?

A rose by any other name might smell the same, as Shakespeare penned. In the past, no matter the color of rose, this might have proved true. But today there's a new rose -- and it's blue.

The Holy Grail

• A blue rose has always been the "Holy Grail" among flowers -- always sought after but forever elusive. The problem is, roses don't have the genes to be blue; they lack the natural pigment "delphinidin," which allows some other flowers (such as violets or petunias) to grow in this color. Without this biological capability, blue roses could not be bred.

"Suntroy Blue Rose Applause"

• In 2004, after more than 15 years of work, Australian and Japanese scientists found the Holy Grail -- almost. Using biotechnology, they implanted a blue gene from pansies into roses, and with a little tinkering, produced a blue rose. Well, it's kind of a blue rose. According to their press release, it has "a bluish tinge reminiscent of the sky just after dawn." The expensive new "blue" rose went on sale in the winter of 2009.

True Blue Roses

• Natural blue roses are not quite blue. blue moon rose. image by mdb from Fotolia.com

  In Victorian times, blue roses represented mystery and an attempt to gain the impossible. Previous to the new "blue" rose, the only way to get a "real" blue rose was to dye one -- usually by cutting immature rose buds and letting them open inside a blue dye. Today, whether you purchase a genetically engineered blue rose or a dyed one, you can argue that either is real. It still smells the same.