GARDENING : Peace Still Blooming 50 Years After WWII
Among this year’s reminders of the end of World War II 50 years ago is a rose.
Peace, a yellow-pink hybrid tea, was introduced in 1945 at a show in Los Angeles. Although the event had been planned for months, the rose’s ceremonial christening took place the day Berlin fell.
Bred in France by Francis Meilland and introduced in the United States by Robert Pyle of Conard-Pyle Roses, Peace has won most of the world’s top rose awards, including the National Gold Medal Certificate.
Roses come and go in popularity, but Peace continues to grace gardens around the world, including the Monarch Beach garden of Justin Ekuan. He has been growing and exhibiting roses for 22 years and praises Peace as “a superb rose, second to none in the garden, the most important rose of all time.”
What makes Peace a great rose is the beauty of the flower and the attractive growth of the bush.
“Peace was a breakthrough rose because of the vigor of the bush, its huge foliage and flowers that are consistently large, even in hot weather,” said Tom Carruth, research director for Weeks Roses in Upland.
Until Peace emerged, hybrid tea roses tended to be tall, leggy plants with sparse foliage and weak stems unable to support the weight of large blooms.
But when Peace was still a numbered seedling in the growing fields of France, it attracted acclaim from those who viewed the new plants, including the Comte and Comtesse de Martel and the Duke of Windsor, who proclaimed it the most beautiful rose in the world.
The romantic tale that Peace was smuggled out of German-occupied France during World War II is only legend, according to the American Rose Society. What actually happened was a tribute to Meilland’s foresight.
By the end of the 1930s, the French, anticipating war, were plowing under ornamental plants to grow vegetables. Meilland, realizing his rosebushes would be sacrificed, too, arranged in June, 1939, to ship budwood from his seedling to three rose hybridizers, including the Conard-Pyle company in the United States.
Communication ceased with the outbreak of war in September, 1939, and Meilland didn’t know that the rose had survived until the war ended.
Peace rapidly gained popularity and spread in the United States and Europe.
“It’s a beautiful addition to any landscape because the bush itself is a nice, balanced shape,” Ekuan said. “It’s a healthy, productive plant that blooms well throughout the year and produces robust, globular flowers that are a lovely blend of yellow and pink tones.”
Peace was the darling of rose exhibitors for two decades after its introduction. Now it’s a rarity in shows; exhibitors seek out the newest roses with the high-centered exhibition form that wins the trophies.
But Peace is still a favorite in gardens, private and public. Many gardens with public access, including those at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, have installed additional Peace plants this year to mark its golden anniversary.
“We’ve planted 100 bushes of Peace, the largest mass planting in Orange County,” said Kevin Cartwright, assistant director of the Nixon library. “We wanted to celebrate its 50th anniversary because of the rose’s symbolism and because its colors blend so well with the other roses in the garden.”
Healthy, vigorous, cloaked in deep-green, leathery leaves that are highly disease-resistant, Peace offers all the attributes you can ask for in a rose except a strong fragrance. It produces a light apple scent, which can be so slight it’s undetectable.
Renowned for its own merits, Peace has also been important as parent and grandparent of an impressive 285 other roses, such as Christian Dior, Garden Party, Royal Highness, Perfume Delight and Pink Peace.
“We still use Peace in developing new roses, although now it serves as a grandparent and even great-grandparent,” Carruth said. “It transmits both vigor and great foliage.”
Sometimes roses produce natural mutations that become recognized as separate plants, and Peace has produced 18, an unusually large number. Some have become popular in their own right. The most notable is Chicago Peace, which displays all the qualities of Peace in a deeper color range.
Peace is still ranked as one of the Top 10 roses in the world. It is considered to be among the best of all hybrid tea climbing roses, although, like many climbers, it requires a few years to become established. As a tree rose, it forms a pleasing, rounded shape that produces abundant spring blossoms and repeats well throughout the year.
Peace is available at most nurseries and garden centers. It’s easy to grow in a spot that receives at least eight hours of sun a day.
Fertilize several times in spring and fall with a fertilizer formulated for roses, an organic fertilizer or a combination of the two. In hot summer temperatures and Santa Ana conditions, don’t fertilize so the rose isn’t stressed by producing new growth.
Water once or twice a week, depending on temperature, so moisture penetrates at least a foot into the ground. All roses and other garden plants benefit from a two-to-four-inch layer of mulch to conserve water and inhibit weed growth.
Like many yellow roses, Peace requires only light pruning each year; remove only about a third of the previous year’s growth. Also remove spindly, crossing or weak canes.
“Everyone should grow Peace,” Ekuan said. “It belongs in all gardens.”
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Where to Find Some Gardens of Peace
Here are some gardens where you can see Peace growing:
* The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd., Yorba Linda, (714) 993-5075.
* Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive, La Canada Flintridge, (818) 952-4401.
* Exposition Park Rose Garden, 701 State Drive, Los Angeles.
* Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, (818) 405-2141.
* Inez Parker Garden, Balboa Park, Park Boulevard at Plaza de Balboa, San Diego.
* Wrigley Estate Rose Garden, Tournament House, 391 S. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena.
