WANT to woo someone with flowers? How about something really special, such as a blue rose, or maybe even an orchid that glows in the dark?
Plant scientists have been trying for years to genetically modify flowers for aesthetic purposes. The first to go on sale were blue carnations produced by Florigene of Melbourne, Australia, in 1996.
However, producing flowers with dramatic new colours or smells has proved much harder than expected. Florigene's attempts to develop a true-blue rose, by switching off production of red pigment and adding a blue pigment gene from the iris, have been only partially successful.
Although a "blue rose"will go on sale this year, it is mauve rather than true-blue. "We are struggling," admits lead researcher Yoshikazu Tanaka of Suntory in Osaka, Japan, Florigene's parent company.
Plant scientists have been trying for years to genetically modify flowers for aesthetic purposes. The first to go on sale were blue carnations produced by Florigene of Melbourne, Australia, in 1996.
However, producing flowers with dramatic new colours or smells has proved much harder than expected. Florigene's attempts to develop a true-blue rose, by switching off production of red pigment and adding a blue pigment gene from the iris, have been only partially successful.
Although a "blue rose"will go on sale this year, it is mauve rather than true-blue. "We are struggling," admits lead researcher Yoshikazu Tanaka of Suntory in Osaka, Japan, Florigene's parent company.
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