The Peace rose is introduced in the United States - April 29th, 1945

On this day in 1945, the world famous Peace rose was introduced to gardeners at a special ceremony in Pasadena, California. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio,
Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that shines a light on the ups and downs
of everyday history. I'm Gabe Luesier, and in this episode
we're talking about all the lucky breaks and sheer coincidence

(00:21):
that helped turn a new French rose into World War
Two's flower of Victory. The day was April twenty ninth,
nineteen forty five. The world famous Peace rose was introduced
to gardiners at a special ceremony in Pasadena, California. The

(00:45):
rose that would one day bear the name of Peace
was developed by French horticulturist Francis Mallon. Between nineteen thirty
five and nineteen thirty nine, he and his father Antoine
gathered different varieties of roses from all all over the
world and then experimented with them in their private greenhouses
near Lyon, France. Each year, the Mayons spread thousands of

(01:09):
roses in hopes of producing a striking new variety. In
nineteen thirty five, after several attempts at cross pollinating two
tea roses, Francis and his father managed to create a
promising hybrid which they dubbed Rose number three thirty five forty,
They spent the next several years nurturing the seedling and

(01:30):
watching its development. To their delight, the plant thrived and
proved to be remarkably resistant to weather, disease and insects. However,
the real payoff was when the plant first bloomed, revealing
large yellow gold flowers tinged with pink along the edges.
In addition to their beautiful color, the rose blossoms were enormous,

(01:53):
measuring six to eight inches in diameter, and because the
bush bloomed more often than most roses, about twenty five
times each year, there were plenty of blossoms to go around.
In June of nineteen thirty nine, Francis Mayon introduced the
new variety to an international group of rose growers. He

(02:13):
called it Madame Antoine Mayon, after his mother, and he
promised that cuttings would soon be available for purchase. Unfortunately,
he wasn't able to keep that promise. Just three months later,
World War II broke out and the global rose trade
ground to a halt along with everything else. Mayon knew

(02:35):
that it was only a matter of time before Germany
invaded France, and he wasn't sure what would happen to
his family's estate under Nazi occupation. He decided that the
best way to safeguard his new rose was descended out
of the country before the borders snapped shut. He managed
to send cuttings to his friends in Italy, Turkey, and

(02:55):
even Germany. Then, in June of nineteen forty he read
made one final batch of grafting stems for shipment to
the USA. The package was reportedly transported in the luggage
of a US consul and made it out on the
last plain to depart France before the Nazis took over.
During the war, Mayon had no way to communicate with

(03:18):
his friends overseas and wasn't sure if his plan had
even worked. Luckily, as he would find out years later,
it did. All of the cuttings he sent survived the
trip and were delivered safely to his friends. The roses
grew just as hardy and beautiful in a variety of
climates and quickly became a regional favorite wherever they were grown.

(03:41):
Mayon's rose took on several different names during the war.
In Italy it was called Joia or Joy, and in
Germany it was called Gloria d or Glory of God,
but it's the flower's American name that's proven the most enduring.
The cuttings sent to the US were delivered to horticulturist

(04:03):
and rose breeder Robert Pyle, whom Mayon had met during
his one and only trip to the States. Pile propagated
the roses bud Wood in his own trial garden in Pennsylvania.
Then he shared clippings with rose growers throughout the country
to test them out in different climates. Pile also sent

(04:24):
samples of the plant to the American Rose Society, which
promptly declared it one of the most beautiful roses in
the world. With that ringing endorsement and positive results from
his team of growers, Pyle decided to patent the rose
under Mayon's name and release it for sale in the US.
Thousands of plants were propagated in preparation, and a contest

(04:47):
was held to pick the new name. In late nineteen
forty four. Pyle and his colleagues reviewed hundreds of submissions
and ultimately settled on the name Peace, the thing that
everyone in the world craving. Most plans were made to
reveal the winning name the following spring during a ceremony
in Pasadena, California, the home of the famous Rose Parade.

(05:11):
The event was held on April twenty ninth, nineteen forty five,
and was a featured highlight of the First Rose Show,
sponsored by the Pacific Rose Society of Pasadena. Spanish American
actress Jenx Falkenberg was a special guest at the ceremony.
She helped release a pair of doves into the air
to mark the occasion, and then christened the rose, saying quote,

(05:34):
we are persuaded that this greatest new Rose of our
time should be named for the world's greatest desire Peace.
Those in attendants didn't know it at the time, but
the ceremony happened to coincide with the fall of Berlin
to Allied forces. The war in Europe was coming to
a close just as the Peace Rose arrived. Robert Pyle

(05:58):
had written to Francis Mayon months earlier to tell him
about the Peace Rose and the upcoming ceremony, and while
the latter wasn't delivered until that summer, more than a
month after Germany's surrender, the delay likely made the new
name seem all the more fitting. In the wake of
the war, the Peace rose struck a chord with the
international community, and as a result, more than thirty million

(06:22):
bushes were sold over the next decade. The rose became
an especially popular choice for public parks and World War
II memorials. Peace has claimed a host of honors over
the years, including in nineteen seventy six when it became
the first cultivar to win the title of World's Favorite rose.

(06:43):
But the flower's biggest claim to fame is probably its
appearance at the inaugural meeting of the United Nations. When
the delegates gathered in San Francisco in the summer of
nineteen forty five, they were each presented with a Peace
rose in the hopes that it would quote influence men's
thoughts for everlasting world peace. As for Francis Mayon, he

(07:05):
continued to breed roses after the war, developing more than
one hundred and fifty varieties during his lifetime. His family
made a tidy profit from sales of the Piece Rose,
and the company that grew from that success, Mayon International,
is now one of the largest and most respected rose
breeders in the world. In the decades since its introduction,

(07:29):
the Piece Rose has been used to create hundreds of
other rose varieties, so many, in fact, that most modern
roses are now thought to be descended from peace in
one way or another. How strange to think. Mayon once
wrote that all these millions of rose bushes sprang from
one tiny seed, no bigger than the head of a pin,

(07:52):
a seed which we might so easily have overlooked or
neglected in a moment of inattention. I'm Gabe blues Yay,
and hopefully you now know a little more about history
today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep
up with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,

(08:13):
and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have
any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my
way by writing to this Day at iHeartMedia dot com.
Thanks to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks
to you for listening. I'll see you back here again
tomorrow for another day in History class.