Rosa Peace
| Rosa 'Madame A. Meilland' (Peace) | |
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| Hybrid parentage | Unnamed seedling × 'Margaret McGredy' |
| Cultivar group | Hybrid tea |
| Cultivar | 'Madame A. Meilland' |
| Marketing names | Gioia, Gloria Dei, Peace |
| Origin | Francis Meilland, France, 1935 to 1939 |
The Peace rose, correctly Rosa 'Madame A. Meilland', is a well-known and successful garden rose. By 1992, over one hundred million plants of this hybrid tea had been sold. The cultivar has large flowers of a light yellow to cream color, slightly flushed at the petal edges with crimson-pink. It is hardy and vigorous and relatively resistant to disease, making it popular in gardens as well as in the floral trade.
It was developed by French horticulturist Francis Meilland in the years 1935 to 1939. When Meilland foresaw the German invasion of France, he sent cuttings to friends in Italy, Turkey, Germany, and the United States to protect the new rose. It is said that it was sent to the US on the last plane available before the German invasion where it was safely propagated by the Conard Pyle Co. during the war.
The cultivar was hybridized in 1935, receiving the number 3-35-40 (the third hybridization in 1935, and the 40th cultivar selected for test proliferation). As those first tests produced beautiful flowers in autumn of 1936, the first no. 3-35-40 were grown in Meilland's rose fields in June 1939. That summer, cuttings were sent to partners in other countries. According to Meilland's records, 'Madame A. Meilland' was hybridized from the hybrid tea 'Margaret McGredy' and an unnamed seedling.
Because Meilland had sent out his cuttings just before the war, communication between the cultivators was not possible, which is why the rose received different names. In France, Francis and Alain Meilland decided to call the cultivar 'Madame A. Meilland', in honor of the Francis' deceased mother, Alain Meilland's wife Claudia. This is the formal cultivar name. Other names are considered by the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants as trade or selling names. In Italy it was called Gioia (It. for "joy"), in Germany Gloria Dei (lat. for "glory of God") and in the USA, Sweden and Norway Peace.
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Wikipedia