One of the famous patrons of roses is Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais

One of the famous patrons of roses is Empress Josephine. Joséphine de Beauharnais was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. However, Napoleon needed his heir, and he divorced her in 1809 to marry Marie Louise of Austria.

In 1799 Josephine purchased the Chateau de Malmaison located near Paris. She had it landscaped in “English” style, hiring landscapers and horticulturalists from the United Kingdom. She took a personal interest in the gardens and the roses, and learned a great deal about botany and horticulture from her staff. Josephine wanted all known roses. The English nurseryman Kennedy was a major supplier of roses for Josephine, despite England and France being at war, Napoleon allowed the shipments to cross blockades. 

The place became her residence after the divorce in 1809. The general assumption is that she had about 250 roses in her garden when she died in 1814. Unfortunately the roses were not catalogued during her tenure. Josephine’s Bengal rose R. indica had black spots on it as shown in “Les Roses”, Redoute’s paintings. She produced the first written history of the cultivation of roses, and is believed to have hosted the first rose exhibition in 1810. Modern hybridization of roses through artificial, controlled pollination began with Josephine’s horticulturalist Andre Dupont. Of the roughly 200 types of roses known to Josephine, Dupont had created 25 while in her employ. Subsequent French hybridizers created over 1000 new rose cultivars in the 30 years after Josephine’s death. The rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ appeared in 1844. It was named in her honor by a Russian Grand Duke, and one of the first specimens was planted in the Imperial Garden in St. Petersburg. empress-josephines-rose-garden    / Chateau_de_Malmaison   Malmaison

François Joyaux, who used to be best known as a specialist of political sciences and Asia (cf. La Nouvelle Question d'Extrême-Orient), has become a renowned rose expert and author. He has already written several books on the topic including his latest one bearing the title Les Roses de l'Impératrice: la rosomanie au temps de Joséphine (The Roses of the Empress: rose mania in the times of Joséphine), in which he studies the rose craze in the society of the First Empire which reflected itself in all aspects of culture and society from architectural ornamentation to rose collecting. Joséphine de Beauharnais in particular is famous for having developed a unique collection of roses in the greenhouses at Malmaison, which were drawn very precisely by artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) and published in a book of prints called Les Roses (1817-1824).......

François Joyaux started collecting roses thirty years ago. He has created a conservatory of rare ancient roses that includes more than a thousand varietals and is the owner of a unique collection of so-called "Gallic Roses", which has been officially listed on the national registry as a "National Collection." He is the founder of the association Rosa Gallica, president of the French Federation for the Rose, vice-president of the Conservation Committe of the World Federation for Roses Societies, as well as a member of numerous French and international jurys.

During the month of June, and only during this month, everyone interested can visit this conservatory of rare varietals and discover his unique collection of ancient French roses. The conservatory is open every day during the following hours: 10 am-noon and 2-6 pm.

ROSA GALLICA 

Conservatoire de variétés rares 

53470 Commer (France) 

Téléphone : 02.43.04.13.62 

Télécopieur : 02.43.04.16.23 

Mél : info@rosagallica.org 

(Sources: Amazon.fr, Editions Complexe, Rosa Gallica, www.histoires-de-roses.com/)  mimifroufrou