Peace
April 12, 2020
A bouquet of Peace roses on Easter Sunday, offering up peace of heart and mind during these uncertain times of isolation ….
watercolour, 7.5″ x 10″, Arches #140 Cold Press Paper
by Lance Weisser
SOLD
The Peace Rose was developed/cultivated from a seed the size of a pinhead in Lyon in 1935 by the French commercial rose-growing family, the Meilland’s, and introduced simply as ‘3-35-40’. Attracting much attention for its beauty at a rose convention in 1939, France was invaded by Hitler and the Meilland properties seized and used for food production.
In desperation, the Meilland’s smuggled ‘3-35-40’ out of France in a diplomatic satchel to The United States, where, in 1940, it was submitted to The All-America Rose Selections (AARS) for a three year testing. Based on the success of this testing, a launch date of April 29, 1945, was chosen to coincide with the Pacific Rose Society Annual Exhibition in Pasadena, California.
‘3-35-40’ still did not have a real name. Then, April 29th, 1945, its official launch date, coincided with the fall of Berlin and the declaration of a Europe-wide truce.
At The Pacific Rose Society Annual Exhibition, two doves were released and ‘3-35-40’ was christened by The AARS via this statement:
“We are persuaded that this greatest new rose of our time should be named for the world’s greatest desire: ‘PEACE’.“
The new rose ‘PEACE’ was officially awarded the AARS award on the day that the war in Japan ended, and on May 8, 1945, with the formal surrender of Germany, each of the 49 delegates to the newly created United Nations were presented with a bloom of “Peace”.
“As for the Meillands, whose rose farms and family assets were destroyed by World War II, the commercial success of “Peace” enable the family business to recover and subsequently continue to develop new, beautiful roses. In what might be a moral to a parable Francis Meilland, who died in 1958, wrote in his diary:
‘How strange to think that all these millions of rose bushes sprang from one tiny seed no bigger than the head of a pin, a seed which we might so easily have overlooked, or neglected in a moment of inattention’ . . . “
weisserwatercolours 
….how wonderful to know you have this intimate family history with the development of this famous rose varieties. Thank you for telling me/us.
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My grandmother was a test grower of roses in northern CA, and this one had pride of place. It is wonderful to learn the history of this rose that I will always associate with her.
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I’m glad I rose to the challenge of adding to your story.
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….you’ve added even more to the story, Steve!
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That’s an inspiring story. It made me wonder whether rose, like coffee, might be a near-universal word, but in checking Google Translate just now I found that while a bunch of languages do have a rose-like word for that flower, many other languages have different words.
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Thank you so much for your kind words friend. Stay safe.
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….thank you Snehal! I hope you receive many visitors to your artistic, colourful site.
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Loved this negative painting 👌🏼 Roses are beautiful. Thank you for sharing the info.
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And thanks for bringing back those memories.
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Thank you Kerfe and Nina for telling me about your dear Mom and her love of roses.
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Thank you for noticing the little butterfly, In, and you have a smorgasbord of interesting posts on ‘In’.
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My mother had these in her rose garden. That was her happy place. (k)
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looks complete with that butterfly detail
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….so appreciated, Sue!
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Beautiful!!!!! Stay safe!!
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Thank you.
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…Kaya, your site is an inspiration to us all, thank you so very much.
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….thank you very much for your kind remarks, Mike. I so enjoy your delicate photographs of wee things!
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That’s so lovely to hear, Susan, thank you for your beautiful paintings, Lance
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Beautiful. The Peace Rose is a favourite of mine and there was always at least one in my rose garden. Nice to know it’s history.
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Spectacular roses, so delicate and so beautiful. What a masterful work. Thanks for sharing the info on the back story of the Peace Rose.
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Thank you for offering us this beautiful bouquet.This painting is amazing!
May you have a safe and blessed Easter!
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