Why blue flowers are rare: the colours of 251 flowers and 596 varieties
Flowers come in every colour — but not equally. We counted the colours of the 251 flower types in our open Flower Encyclopedia and of the 596 named commercial varieties in the Acanta master catalogue that florists buy from. White and pink lead; true blue is rare — and the trade has even less of it than nature.
How common each colour is
Bars use each colour's own swatch and show its share of commercial varieties; the right-hand column is the share of flower types that come in that colour.
| Colour | Commercial varieties | Flower types |
|---|---|---|
| White | 18% | 51.4% |
| Pink | 15.1% | 41.8% |
| Green | 11.7% | 37.5% |
| Yellow | 8.4% | 29.5% |
| Red | 7% | 34.7% |
| Purple | 6.4% | 30.7% |
| Blush | 6.4% | 8% |
| Burgundy | 4.5% | 23.1% |
| Orange | 4.2% | 22.3% |
| Cream | 4% | 23.1% |
| Lavender | 3.7% | 14.7% |
| Blue | 3.5% | 16.7% |
| Peach | 3% | 7.2% |
| Coral | 2.3% | 13.5% |
| Brown | 1.2% | 14.7% |
| Black | 0.5% | 4% |
Every blue variety in the catalogue
All 21 blue commercial varieties. There is no blue rose, tulip or carnation among them — the blue ones you see on sale are dyed.
- Aconitum Bicolor
- Agapanthus blue
- Anemone blue
- Cornflower blue
- Delphinium Centurion Cobalt
- Delphinium Centurion Sky Blue
- Delphinium Dou Devi Boy
- Delphinium Dou Devi Rocket
- Echinops Ritro
- Eryngium blue
- Hyacinth Blue Jacket
- Hyacinth Delft Blue
- Hydrangea blue
- Hydrangea Elbtal
- Hydrangea Magical Classic Blue
- Iris Telstar
- Lupin blue
- Muscari armeniacum
- Nigella damascena
- Oxypetalum (Tweedia) blue
- Viburnum tinus
The full table (share of flower types and of commercial varieties for each colour) as CSV — free to reuse and cite with a link, for non-commercial and editorial use. Column names are in English.
Free to quote and cite with attribution and a link back, for non-commercial and editorial use (blogs, journalism, classrooms, research).
Lacy Bird Flower Encyclopedia — “Flower colour index”. https://lacybird.com/data/flower-colour-index/<a href="https://lacybird.com/data/flower-colour-index/">Lacy Bird Flower Encyclopedia — Flower colour index</a>