# Roses are blue?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 2, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134 "2004-07-02T00:02:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134/1 "2004-07-02T00:02:11Z")
[Yahoo News Photo](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/040630/photos_us_rank_afp/040630160632_lsn6sag0_photo0&e=1)
Caption:
> [@](#):
>
> Roses are blue? : The world’s first ‘blue rose’ developed by Japanese brewer Suntory is displayed during a press conference in Tokyo. (AFP/Toru Yamanaka)
Is this really a blue rose?
It looks violet to me.
_Roses are violet,
violets are too.
What the heck
Is the world coming to?_
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### Author:  [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134/2 "2004-07-02T00:08:27Z")
[Another Photo](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/040630/481/tok10206300755&e=5)
Caption:
> [@](#):
>
> Model Aya Kato displays the world’s first blue roses at a media preview in Tokyo Wednesday, June 30, 2004. The blue roses, that had been thought impossible to create for years, was developed by Suntory and Australian bio venture FlorigenePty, Ltd., using biotechnology. Blue color pigment extracted from blue flowers was added to roses by recombinant DNA techniques. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
They still look violet to me.
And what was the blue flower? A _violet_, perhaps?
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### Author:  [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134/3 "2004-07-02T00:32:46Z")
It’s been my opinion for years that when breeders/seedsmen refer to a flower being blue, it is most decidedly purple/orchid/mauve. What are they comparing it to? When the Burpee Company was hybridizing marigolds to come up with a white one, they were looking for the same shade as perfectly white petunias[I forget the actual variety used for comparison] In my opinion, they weren’t even close. It was nice to have such a pale marigold, but white it wasn’t. Heck, I guess they can call their new rose blue if they want. IMHO, if they truly have a blue rose then it should be comparable to the color of blue Bachelor Buttons or Phacelia[these are the closest to a Crayola™ crayon blue I can think of] Rosarians and gardeners will let them know how close they got. I’m sure it’ll be popular, since blue has been a most elusive color.
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### Author:  [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134/4 "2004-07-02T01:58:53Z")
“Blue Roses.”
Anyone else think of The Glass Menagerie?
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### Author:  [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134/5 "2004-07-02T02:44:09Z")
I think I prefer the natural colors better- they’re so much more vibrant than these pale ones.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2004, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134/6 "2004-07-02T06:02:37Z")
About 5 years ago I bought a small rose bush that had a label on it, showing a primary-blue rose; and the name of the rose was Blue-Something. The following spring, one little twig shot out the ground, containing one bud. The bud eventually became a rose with that same neutral-lavender color. Every year it’s the same thing - one little twig, one bud, one lavender rose.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2004, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134/7 "2004-07-02T12:01:33Z")
> [@bughunter](#):
>
> Is this really a blue rose?
>
> It looks violet to me.
>
> -
Looks kinda silvery to me, which would be nice if it were a vibrant silver, but it’s quite tepid. Dull, even.
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roses-are-blue/253134/8 "2004-07-02T14:44:29Z")
Here is a site with pictures of “[blue flowers](http://www.wildflowers.reach.net/blue.html)”. They all look to be in the purple/violet range. Is there a true “blue” flower?