In 2015, some of our members travelled to Lyon, France to be at the 17th World Convention of Rose Societies. Lyon has a special place in rose history as we will see.
The British National Rose Society, consisting of professional nurserymen and wealthy clergymen, was founded in 1876 and new rose varieties were often introduced at its rose shows. In 1879 an ex cattle breeder and farmer, Henry Bennett, displayed 10 roses with named parentage, which he called “Pedigree hybrids of the Tea rose”.
Henry Bennett deserves a place in the Rose Hall of Fame as he had applied the principles of cattle breeding to rose hybridisation. He carefully recorded the crossing of Tea roses with Hybrid Perpetual roses. Up to this time, the introduction of new roses depended on natural cross-pollination or the unrecorded pollination of parents by breeders. The seed parent would be known, but not the pollen parent.
In 1880, Henry Bennett was invited to Lyon to address a meeting of the highly influential Horticultural Society of Lyon on the status of the Hybrid Teas. Francois Lacharme of Lyon had already contributed to the new class and in 1859 had introduced Victor Verdier which he believed to be a cross between Jules Margottin a Hybrid Perpetual and Safrano a Tea. Note the date – 1859.
As a result of his meeting, the French announced the creation of a new class of roses – the Hybrid Teas. After that, breeders began to list some of their roses in the new class. However the British National Rose Society would not acknowledge the new class until 1893 and in 1897 they classified La France as the first Hybrid Tea, even though it was not introduced until 1872 and its parentage was completely unknown, being a seedling found by the Frenchman, Guillot, in a patch at Lyon-Monplaisir. Lyon really does have an affinity with roses, doesn’t it? Let the argument continue, but La France is universally accepted as the first HT. (It is in the Heritage between the first small gate and the double gate – a scrawny little rose if ever there was one.)
Let me come back briefly to Lyon and its association with roses. It involves a Frenchman who became known as “The Wizard of Lyon”. His story deserves more time than we have at present so we will journey there another time. The man in question is Joseph Pernet – Ducher and he earned his title with a rose named Soliel d’ Or, a Pernetiana, which is a class of roses named after the man.
