‘Peace’ rose

One of my favorite flower stories is the romance and drama of the ‘Peace’ rose. It was 1935 and Francil Meilland, a third generation French rose breeder noticed a seedling that looked particularly promising. For four years, he worked to improve the cultivar, to make it more beautiful and hardier.

But just as he was getting ready to introduce it to the gardening world, it became apparent that France was on the brink of war. With the possibility of harm or devastation to the nursery, he sent cuttings of the cultivar to friends in Italy, Turkey and Germany. At the last minute (legend says on the very last plane out of France to America) he was able to send some to the United States.

All during World War II, Meilland had no contact with these friends. But the rose had created a sensation wherever it was grown. Breeders in the U.S. were so enthusiastic about it that the American Rose Society launched it on April 29, 1945 and renamed it with this statement: “We are persuaded that this greatest new rose of our time should be named for the world’s greatest desire: ‘Peace.’

In nine years, 30 million ‘Peace’ roses were sold all over the world. In his diary, Francis Meilland wrote “How strange to think that all these millions of rose bushes sprang from one tiny seed no bigger than the head of a pin, a seed which we might so easily have overlooked, or neglected in a moment of inattention.

Although I’m not much of one to plant hybrid roses that need a lot of care, I’ve bought a ‘Peace’ rose to plant in the front yard. I want it as a reminder in the years to come that even though 2020 has brought many challenges, there was still beauty and the world’s greatest desire is still ‘Peace.”

Don’t let your attention waver for a moment these days and don’t neglect to look for peace and beauty everywhere, it may be no bigger than the head of a pin.

Laura