How blue roses appeared: the story of a flower

From Japan with love

The Japanese are a nation that amazes not only with their technical achievements, but also with their incredible love of beauty. They are the ones who invent everything that is possible, it does not matter whether it is ultra-modern computer technology, environmentally friendly electric cars or flowers. The Suntory company this time delighted all women who adore custom bouquets and invented truly unique blue roses. In the photo they look very attractive, but in real life it is much more difficult to describe their beauty. Indeed, blue tones are not at all typical for garden queens.

Representatives of the company promised that their creation will hit the shelves at the end of 2011 and have fulfilled their promise. We are not talking about tinted buds, but about genetically modified plants that are unique in their kind. It's hard to believe, but it took more than fourteen years to develop such a miracle!

Ovation or applause?

For such a unique development, a quite appropriate name was chosen - "Applause". At the same time, scientists took care of preserving the natural balance: the flowers were approved by the government commission of the Celestial Empire, which is responsible for biological safety. Of course, in natural conditions, the appearance of such a unique would be nonsense, so it is easy to guess that the shade was created using a special implantation technology. The essence of the latter in a few words can be explained as follows: modern techniques have allowed researchers to synthesize the pigment delphinidin, designed to be responsible for the bluish-blue color of the petals. As the authors emphasize, they borrowed the substance from pansies, known for their rich sky blue.

The price of pleasure

Connoisseurs of beauty were pleased with such a novelty, but its cost cannot be called too attractive. It is logical that the Japanese asked for a considerable sum for the results of their labors. In local currency, it is about two to three thousand yen, which in terms of American money is equivalent to twenty to thirty dollars. And this is almost ten times the price of an ordinary flower. For the delivery of flowers to their home, buyers will have to part with a very insignificant amount, because the sellers have taken care of maximum convenience. As for any export plans, there is simply no point in talking about them so far. The point is that they do not exist. Suntory is going to delight with its creation exclusively buyers of the domestic market. Perhaps in the future they will change their minds, but when exactly this will happen, it is difficult to predict.

A history of ups and downs

It is noteworthy that attempts to bring out such flowers have already been made several times. The first minor success in this area took place already in 2004. At that time, a team of professionals from the already mentioned Land of the Rising Sun, as well as Australia, was actively involved in this. Then they established the basic condition for creating blue roses. As it turned out, such a necessary component was the same gene obtained from pansies. True, this was the end of all the activities, even though in 2004 there was even a message that they would soon go on sale. In 2004, the Americans reported on their achievements. However, neither the first nor the second team managed to bring all projects to life: it took another seven long years.

Do it yourself

Unfortunately, in our country it is possible to meet such beauty very, very rarely, and its price, most likely, will turn out to be painfully "toothy".However, this is not a reason to despair: next we will look at how to dye roses blue at home.

So, we need:

• cut roses, which ideally should not be fully opened;
• a tall vase or just a three-liter jar;
• food coloring of the appropriate shade (to find blue, you will have to go around more than one grocery store, so please be patient);
• sugar.

Brief instruction:

1. Fill the vase with water until it is half full.
2. Pour in the dye (the more intense the desired tone should be, the more powder you need, but you should not overdo it either, do not put more than two teaspoons). Observe the liquid: it should become very bright.
3. Add the same amount of sugar to the jar. It will fix the effect and help the flowers fill with paint faster.
4. We lower the rose under a stream of water and cut off the stem at a large angle. The sharper the cut, the better.
5. Immediately we dip it into the water, and only then do we deal with the rest of the bouquet. Shades will appear no earlier than three days later.