Antoine Meilland

As a young man, he worked as a nursery assistant for rose breeder, Francis Dubreuil.

Antoine was drafted into the French army when France entered the War in 1914, and Claudia managed the nursery in his absence.

When Antoine returned to Lyon, after the war, he and Claudia took over the management of the family business.

A neighbor, Madame Meviere, introduced Antoine to his first rose, Rosa 'Noisettiana' (1814), which had just started blooming in her garden.

[1] By the age of twelve, he decided that he wanted to grow roses, so he quit school and took a job at a local arborist where he learned grafting techniques.

He planted twenty thousand rootstocks, and lost the entire crop to an invasion of root eating maybugs[4][5] Francis Meilland followed in his family's footsteps, and started working at the nursery from the age of fourteen.

His father took Francis along to a meeting of rose hybridizers hosted by prominent rosarian, Charles Mallerin.

[3] As the Meilland's representative, Conrad-Pyle introduced Francis's first commercially successful rose in the U.S., 'Golden State', in 1938.

[10] Their new business was renamed Meilland-Richardier, and is now a subsidiary of Meilland International in southern France.