First created in a 1987 experiment at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, the petunias were subsequently released into the wild but were not commercialized.

In a paper published in Nature the same year, the researchers demonstrated that the insertion of a gene from maize into a petunia would cause the plant to produce pelargonidin, turning its flowers salmon.

[1] Orange petunias were also created through a similar genetic modification from other plant sources, including Gerbera, Calibrachoa, and rose; these were never officially commercialized either.

Teeri notified a regulator with the Finnish Board for Gene Technology of the petunias' presence, a decision which he later told ScienceInsider he regrets.

[1] The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the United Kingdom launched an investigation into their sale, and campaign group GM Freeze warned consumers to avoid the plants.

The agency released guidance directing breeders and sellers in the United States to autoclave, bury, compost, incinerate, or use a landfill to dispose of the identified petunia varieties.

[1] Michael Firko, director of the Biotechnology Regulatory Services division of APHIS, stated that certain companies may have unknowingly been selling genetically modified petunias for almost a decade; one of his team members had noticed the flowers in a centrepiece at a graduation party in May 2017 but did not take a sample because "she didn't want to destroy the nice floral display".

An executive at trade group AmericanHort suggested that "somewhere along the line [...] somebody lost sight of the fact that the original color breakthrough in question here had been achieved through genetic modification".

[1] The USDA stated in 2017 that it would not pursue action against companies which had distributed orange petunias, as it appeared that they had not been aware that the plants were unauthorized genetically modified organisms.

[1] In 2021, a petition by German plant supply company Westhoff led the USDA and APHIS to deregulate orange petunias in the United States, allowing their sale.

Anthocyanins are water-soluble pigments giving flowers, fruits and sometimes vegetative parts of plants colors ranging from orange and red to blue and purple.