first BLUE chrysanthemum
It has taken 13 years of painstaking research to create the flower
They are first to be verified as 'true blue' by the Royal Horticultural Society
DNA from a butterfly pea and Canterbury bell was transferred to a plant bug
The microscopic bug then carried the blue genes into a chrysanthemum
When seeds were taken from the plant, a year after the process began, they grew and emerged with the blue petals
By Victoria Allen, Science Correspondent For The Daily Mail
PUBLISHED: 13:59 EDT, 26 July 2017 | UPDATED: 12:40 EDT, 27 July 2017

It has taken 13 years of painstaking research but they are finally here – the first bunch of true blue chrysanthemums.

Grown from the DNA of three plants, these flowers represent a scientific breakthrough that could help transform our gardens.

While you may think you've seen plenty of blue blooms – bluebells, for instance – they are officially different versions of purple or violet instead.


These chrysanthemums are the first to be verified as 'true blue' by the Royal Horticultural Society.

To create the flower, scientists took DNA from a butterfly pea and Canterbury bell and transferred it into a common plant bug.

The microscopic bug then carried the blue genes into a chrysanthemum.

When seeds were taken from the plant, a year after the process began, they grew and emerged with the blue petals.

However the flowers are not uniformly blue, as genes work weakly or strongly depending on where in a plant's DNA they are spliced.

The procedure is reported in the journal Scientific Advances by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organisation in Japan.

Lead author Dr Naonobu Noda said: 'Chrysanthemums are the second best-selling cut flowers after roses in the world.

'Our blue chrysanthemums have a novel and natural blue colour, which has been confirmed as true blue.

'This technique could be applied to other plants not possessing blue flower cultivars, for example roses and dahlias.'

It took the scientific team in Japan 13 years to create the blue chrysanthemum.

Initial attempts to change their colour using the Canterbury bell, a popular bell-shaped garden plant, came out in different shades of violet.

But when combined with genes from a second plant, the bright butterfly pea – grown in the tropics and used to colour food – it was a success.

The two-step method was described as 'unexpected' by the Japanese scientists, who believed multiple plant genes were required in a far more complicated process.

Guy Barter, chief horticulturalist at the Royal Horticultural Society, said: 'This is a really interesting scientific breakthrough, especially given that previous attempts to create true blue flowers have not been terribly successful.

'True blue flowers are actually pretty rare and we know there is an enthusiastic market for them, as there is for black flowers.'

Relatively few naturally 'true' blue flowers are available for gardeners, despite informal surveys showing this is their second favourite colour after pink.

With bluebells and cornflowers containing purple in their petals, the few remaining options include delphiniums, sea holly and the Himalayan poppy.

Some hydrangeas can be blue but only in the right acidic soil, which contains enough aluminium to bring out the pigment.

The chrysanthemums created in Japan have passed the stringent criteria of the RHS colour scale, which requires plants to be faced north towards the light before being measured against a detailed chart.

Its colour is unlikely to be passed on through its seeds, but should be easy to multiply by taking cuttings.

Various flower types of transgenic blue/violet/purple chrysanthemums (left) and natural pink/red/magenta chrysanthemums (right) +6
Various flower types of transgenic blue/violet/purple chrysanthemums (left) and natural pink/red/magenta chrysanthemums (right)

However Mr Barter added: 'In the EU currently, genetically modified plants require special permission to be grown, so at the moment we are not going to see blue chrysanthemums in garden centres.

'Nonetheless this could provide new options for perfectionist gardeners looking for flowers which are blue rather than violet or lavender.'

David Baulcombe, professor of botany at Cambridge University, said: 'People have been trying to make blue roses and chrysanthemums for years. It is not my taste, but a nice illustration of how GM can be used to transfer genes from one plant to another.'



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...
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OK - had to look at a picture. It's blue alright.

But the photo doesn't show the leaves. I want proof its not photoshopped.

Blue. Blue. Blue !!!

Gee ??? I don't know, now ?😕?

Fresno CA. Must be of Klingon decent, or in the Twillite Zone ?

Years ago ! 👹👹👹 !
In a house.
Not. To far from hear !😮!
I had a blue rose.

Humm ?😕? We also use Empson Salts on our hydrangeas to keep them true to color.
And also to keep our roses. Tomatoes. Peppers. And Eggplant happy.
👹👹👹

Truly blue chrysanthemums proved easier to make than researchers had thought.
Naonobu Noda/NARO
Scientists genetically engineer the world’s first blue chrysanthemum
By Elizabeth PennisiJul. 26, 2017 , 2:00 PM
True blue flowers are a rarity in nature—they occur only in select species like morning glories and delphiniums. Now, researchers have created a genuinely blue chrysanthemum by adding two genes to the normally pink or reddish flower. The advance could be applied to other species—and it may mean that florists wanting to hawk blooms of blue will no longer have to dye them.

“This [advance] is of great impact,” says Toru Nakayama, a plant biochemist at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, who was not involved with the work. There are several popular commercial species for which no true blue varieties exist, he notes.

We all think we’ve seen blue flowers before. And in some cases, it’s true. But according to the Royal Horticultural Society’s color scale—the gold standard for flowers—most “blues” are really violet or purple. Florists and gardeners are forever on the lookout for new colors and varieties of plants, however, but making popular ornamental and cut flowers, like roses, vibrant blue has proved quite difficult. “We’ve all been trying to do this for a long time and it’s never worked perfectly,” says Thomas Colquhoun, a plant biotechnologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville who was not involved with the work.

True blue requires complex chemistry. Anthocyanins—pigment molecules in the petals, stem, and fruit—consist of rings that cause a flower to turn red, purple, or blue, depending on what sugars or other groups of atoms are attached. Conditions inside the plant cell also matter. So just transplanting an anthocyanin from a blue flower like a delphinium didn’t really work.

Naonobu Noda, a plant biologist at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization in Tsukuba, Japan, tackled this problem by first putting a gene from a bluish flower called the Canterbury bell into a chrysanthemum. The gene’s protein modified the chrysanthemum’s anthocyanin to make the bloom appear purple instead of reddish. To get closer to blue, Noda and his colleagues then added a second gene, this one from the blue-flowering butterfly pea. This gene’s protein adds a sugar molecule to the anthocyanin. The scientists thought they would need to add a third gene, but the chrysanthemum flowers were blue with just the two genes, they report today in Science Advances.

“That allowed them to get the best blue they could obtain,” says Neil Anderson, a horticultural scientist at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul who was not involved with the work.

Chemical analyses showed that the blue color came about in just two steps because the chrysanthemums already had a colorless component that interacted with the modified anthocyanin to create the blue color. “It was a stroke of luck,” Colquhoun says. Until now, researchers had thought it would take many more genes to make a flower blue, Nakayama adds.

The next step for Noda and his colleagues is to make blue chrysanthemums that can’t reproduce and spread into the environment, making it possible to commercialize the transgenic flower. But that approach could spell trouble in some parts of the world. “As long as GMO [genetically modified organism] continues to be a problem in Europe, blue [flowers] face a difficult economic future,” predicts Ronald Koes, a plant molecular biologist at the University of Amsterdam who was not involved with the work. But others think this new blue flower will prevail. “It’s certainly an advance for the retail florist,” Anderson says. “It would have a lot of market value worldwide.”

As for Noda and other scientists, the blue blooms mean that at long last, they understand the biochemistry of this remarkable color.

I don't know if there are any naturally occuring truly blue flowers as blue is not a color that plants can make. So that's the challenge. Make a blue flower...

Oh ! Hell !😕???
How does that song go.
GMO or NOT !
Ohh !!! I got it ?
Money Money Monneey !!!! ..... Monneey ! 🎵🎵🎵
For the love of money ! 🎵🎵🎵
..........

YEP !!! Thats right folks !

SAD !😞!
😎😎😎

I'm thinking if they can do the GMO crops, then they can modify flowers.
For me, this is a dark blue, but I'm a guy. Not sure there is a need for a blue rose or blue chrysanthemums, but to each their own.

That looks like a purple ballon flower to me.

Thats what the wife said, and thats when the argument began

In one word: Chromatography

Mush a flower into one end of a paper towel strip (about an inch from one end) - a coin edge or spoon work well. Really work the flower petals into the paper towel. Suspend the very colorful end of the paper towel in a solution of alcohol and water (1:1). Don't let the color touch the alcohol. Watch...

The colors that make up the flower color will separate out as the colors travel up the paper towel to the top.

Absorbant paper towels work best. Your strip only needs to be about an inch wide. This may take an hour but don't let the colors travel all the way to the top.

Have fun! Photos of results, please...

I have a phlox "The King" which looks purple in bright light, but in the morning and evening it truly appears to be blue. I really like this one.

Hay there RJ. Looks blue to me. But. Instead of arguing about it.
LETS HAVE A CONTEST. Rules : Everybody vote blue or purple. Everybody keep up tally.
Like this. Right now.
Tally is : Blue 2. Purple 1.
Got it ! Lets GO !

Have some fun. I'm getting real tired of some people arguing and arguing. They. Just. Have. To. Be. Right.
I don't belive that is what this site is about. Isn't it about voicing your opinion, then letting it go ???
So do your duty ! And VOTE VOTE VOTE !
😎😎😎

The contest is already over. Men will see blue and women will see purple.

I did see this on the Chicago news this morning and I will say that the picture they used had ultra-saturated blue color compared to the link above.

So it's that whole Mars and Venus thing?😀

chicory has a flower that is blue to me.

there are also violas that are blue.

crawgarden said:So it's that whole Mars and Venus thing?😀

Probably.

Here's an NPR article with photographs: http://www.npr.org/sections/th...

However, the King Tut sweet pea has flowers that are true medium blue (plus white, plus pink). Here's one I grew just this year:



(Lathyrus sativus azureus)

In person they are even bluer than chicory and morning glories, both of which can approach "true blue" as well.

crawgarden said:first BLUE chrysanthemum
It has taken 13 years of painstaking research to create the flower
They are first to be verified as 'true blue' by the Royal Horticultural Society
DNA from a butterfly pea and Canterbury bell was transferred to a plant bug
The microscopic bug then carried the blue genes into a chrysanthemum
When seeds were taken from the plant, a year after the process began, they grew and emerged with the blue petals
By Victoria Allen, Science Correspondent For The Daily Mail
PUBLISHED: 13:59 EDT, 26 July 2017 | UPDATED: 12:40 EDT, 27 July 2017

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

This is GREAT!!! Thanks so much for sharing!