The first blue roses will be available in 2009

RBC, 06.02.2008 

The Japanese corporation Suntory, specializing in the production of whiskey, said that it finally managed to bring out the world's first kind of sky-blue roses. According to Ananova, the first trial batches of such flowers are already being grown by the company's specialists in the USA and Australia, and the first sales of roses will begin in Japan in 2009.

It took Suntory scientists 14 long years to create a genetically engineered rose with bright blue petals. "Experts said it was impossible to create a blue rose, but we did it. We accepted the challenge and won," the representative of the company Atsuhito Osaka is proud.

There really was a lot of debate about whether it was possible to breed a blue rose variety. The problem is that in the chromosomes of the rose there is no gene for the blue pigment delphinidin, which determines the color of a number of flowers, berries and vegetables, such as blueberries and eggplants. In addition, for the blue of the petals, some other coloring substances and a suitable level of acidity are needed, and an ordinary rose is deprived of all this.

For many years, scientists from all over the world, in particular from America and Australia, have tried to derive a blue kind of rose, but all experiments ended with only an approximate result in the form of purple or lilac flowers.

The employees of the Suntory company are the first who managed to realize the dream of world breeders.

The blue rose, the company's representatives say, will be sold at the highest price. "We expect that the people who will buy these roses will have a very high income, and we will be happy if it becomes a tradition for people to give these roses on the most special occasions," continues Osaka, adding that only a few hundred blue flowers will be sold per year.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru06.02.2008