Blue rose
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Since roses lack a gene to produce delphinidin, the primary plant pigment that produces true blue flowers, blue roses were traditionally created by dyeing white roses. So-called "blue roses" have been bred by conventional hybridization methods, but the results, such as "Blue Moon" are more accurately described as lilac in color. However, after 13 years of joint research by an Australian company Florigene, and Japanese company Suntory, a blue rose was created in 2004 using genetic engineering. The delphinidin gene was cloned from the petunia and inserted into a mauve-blend rose, the Old Garden Rose 'Cardinal de Richelieu.' (a Rosa gallica) However, since the pigment cyanidin was still present, the rose was more dark burgundy than true blue. Further work on the rose using RNAi technology to depress the production of cyanidin produced a very dark mauve plant, with only trace amounts of cyanidin.
Blue roses traditionally signify mystery or attaining the impossible. They are believed to be able to grant the owner youth or grant wishes. This symbolism derives from the rose's meaning in the language of flowers common in Victorian times.
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[edit] References in popular culture
[edit] Graphic design
The blue rose appears to have held a particular fascination for the designers of printed textiles; at certain times, for example the 1970s, the blue rose far outstripped roses of a more natural colour as a popular design motif.
Since 1970 the blue rose has featured predominantly on bed linen, lingeré, printed flannelette, printed tablecloths, headscarves, handkerchiefs, gros point tapestry designs, packaging and printed toilet paper.
Blue roses also adorn many printed ceramics and have done so since under-glaze blue printing became a common mode of decoration in the 1700s. In the late 1960s Wedgwood produced a range of bone china decorated with blue roses, the so-called "Ice Rose" design.
[edit] Fiction
- In Slavic mythology one may be granted wishes by bringing a blue rose to Baba Yaga. The Blue Rose was also a symbolist, impressionist influenced art movement in Tsarist Russia in the early 20th Century.
- The Blue Rose, due to its mysterious nature, acts as a clue in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me.
- Blue Rose is also a fantasy role-playing game published in 2004 by Green Ronin Publishing, emulating the "romantic fantasy" fiction sub-genre.
- Possibly the most famous reference to "blue roses" in literature is in the seventh scene of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, in which Jim realizes Laura is the same girl he had called "Blue Roses" in high school, since she had been out with pleurosis.
- In the 2006 movie, Kamen Rider Kabuto: God Speed Love, Issei Kurosaki (Kamen Rider Caucasus) carries a blue rose.
- In the anime, Blood+, the blue rose symbolizes the mysterious antagonist, Diva.
- In the fourth episode, first season of the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, a woman named Karin cultivates blue roses.
- In the anime, Paradise Kiss, the final dress the protagonist wears for a competition, includes a great quantity of blue roses.
- The Peter Straub novels “Koko”, “Mystery”, and “The Throat” are known as the Blue Rose Trilogy.
- In the manga series Blaue Rosen (Ai wo Utau yori Ore ni Oborero!), the female lead is part of a band called the "Blue Roses", or Blaue Rosen in German.
