AT BAGATELLE WE WERE ABLE TO PRESENT FOURTEEN THOUSAND VARIETIES OF SUPERB ROSES

They are obtained by crossing.

At the rose competition which has just taken place at the Bagatelle rose garden, the gold medal was awarded to a yellow rose mixed with Sienna which bears the name of Angèle-Pernet.

Laypeople often wonder by what alchemy rose growers obtain these marvelous flowers that we admire in these exhibitions.

What a journey we have taken between the primitive rose with its unique row of almost flat petals, of a simple color and a rustic odor, and these countless rolled-up petals, with their composed tones and strange perfume that horticulturists now offer to our admiration !

How do rose growers or, to give them the title they prefer, rose sowers obtain the combination of qualities particular to several species of roses?

Hybridizations

They use hybridizations, that is to say extremely delicate mixtures.

Having chosen a species of rose that he intends to become the mother, the rose grower cuts off its stamens with fine scissors. He must carry out this operation with a fairly light hand, so as not to hurt the rose and to prevent the pollen from his own pistils from touching the stamens.

With a slightly damp brush, the rose grower then takes a little pollen from the flower whose qualities he wants to add to those of the first. The brush deposits the pollen on the pistil. So that no natural phenomenon, wind, bee, bird, disturbs the play of this crossing, the flower thus sown is sheltered, for example in a tissue paper pouch.

The flower which has thus undergone the addition of foreign elements is not transformed, but the seeds which it will subsequently give will produce new plants bringing together, in general, the qualities, and also the defects, fragility, small imperfections of the two species whose crossing was thus carried out artificially.

Of course, this hybridization operation must be carried out at a time when several weeks of good heat will cause the seed to open.

The opposite of the operation that we have described can also be attempted, a flower of the plant which originally served as mother escaping the mutilation of the stamens and providing the pollen which will be deposited on the pistil of a flower of the other variety.
The children of these two flowers thus obtained by two inverse operations may, moreover, not resemble each other. Through hybridizations, we obtain in roses changes in color, shape, foliage, appearance of the plant, habit, as the English say, perfume and also in the number of flowers and the duration of flowering.

From 10 to 14,000 varieties Little by little, the rose species are constantly becoming different. And so, while Le Nôtre only had around ten varieties of roses for the gardens of Louis XIV, Joséphine could admire, at La Malmaison, a little over a thousand. and that at present the rose garden of Bagatelle has approximately fourteen thousand varieties, an admirable collection of which Mr. Jean Forestier, the scholar curator, affirms that it is still incomplete.

The rose garden of Bagatelle

At the Bagatelle rose garden, contrary to widespread belief, we do not cross-breed roses. But we are sampling the wonders that humble rose growers create for our joy throughout the world.

Bagatelle has thus become the conservatory of floral wonders. Indeed, when the City of Paris took possession of this area, the idea was put forward to keep its historical interest in these buildings and these shady spaces, but to give them a specific interest by transporting the rose bushes from the public gardens, plants too delicate and too desired by amateurs not to have to fear attacks from passers-by. At the start of the organization of the rose garden, one thousand to twelve hundred different species were able to be brought together by the City of Paris, helped by Mr. Gravereaux, the generous donor of its own collections.

Mr. Jean Forestier, the curator of the promenades of the City of Paris, then took the initiative of asking all rose growers in the world to send a copy of their masterpieces. Rose competitions came to sanction these sendings.

Unique collection in the world

And this is how Parisians and their foreign guests can now satisfy their sight and smell with a collection unique in the world.

He is just a shadow on the board. This is because the authors of new roses, whose creations reward years of patience and research, can only sell a plant to merchants, who then multiply the original plant and distribute thousands of copies for their benefit. . The fortune of the dealers does not prevent creators from sometimes dying of starvation when they have become impotent, or from ending their lives in a poor wooden cabin, as was the case of Levet, the creator of Reine-Marie-Henriette , Belle-Lyonnaise, Ulrich-Brunner, Paul-Neyron and so many other plant gems.

CHARLES OF AVRON.