It implanted those extracted genes into a rose and thus attained the flower breeder's holy grail: a blue rose. At ¥ 3000 (about US $ 33) a stem, this genetically engineered flower hit the market in 2007. The first blue bloom among the 2500 varieties of roses, it has made people recognize the enormous amount of work that goes into flower breeding.
這朵基因工程下的產物在 2007 年問世時，一朵要價 3,000 元日幣（合 33 美元），彌補了全球 2,500 多個玫瑰品種裡獨缺藍玫瑰的遺憾，也讓世人見識到花卉育種的曠日廢時。