Chicago Peace

This is the Chicago Peace Hybrid Tea Rose, a more colorful variant of the fabulous Peace Rose, with glowing pink and canary yellow shading, first discovered by a rose breeder in the city of Chicago, my home town. Photographed here in my San Pedro garden, on the last day of 2009 in the low December sun.

The Peace Rose is the most famous and successful garden rose of all time. Well over one hundred million plants have been sold. It is a Hybrid Tea rose with large flowers and a light yellow to cream color.

It was developed by French horticulturist Francis Meilland in the years 1935 to 1939. When Meilland foresaw the German invasion of France he sent cuttings to friends in Italy, Turkey, Germany, and the United States to protect the new rose.

The rose became known as 'Peace' in the following way: Early 1945 Meilland wrote to Field Marshal Alan Brooke, the principal author of the master strategy that won Second World War, to thank him for his key part in the liberation of France and to ask if Brooke would give his name to the rose. Brooke declined saying that, though he was honored to be asked, his name would soon be forgotten and a much better and more enduring name would be "Peace."

The name "Peace" is a trade name; its formal cultivar name is Rosa 'Madame A. Meilland'. The adoption of the trade name "Peace" was publicly announced in the United States on 29 April 1945 by the introducers, Messrs Conard Pyle Co. This was the very day that Berlin fell, officially considered the end of the Second World War in Europe. Later that year Peace roses were given to each of the delegations at the inaugural meeting of the United Nations in San Francisco, each with a note which read, "We hope the 'Peace' rose will influence men’s thoughts for everlasting world peace." from wikipedia

May 2010 be filled with Peace and Happiness.