The Meilland Family
The family's first rosarian was gardener, Joseph Rambaux, who first started breeding roses in 1850 in Lyon.
After World War I, Antoine and Claudia bought property in Tassin-la-Demi-Lune, near Lyon and started a new nursery.
Their son, Francis, married Marie-Louise (Louisette) Paolino, daughter of an Italian rose breeder in 1939.
His legendary 'Peace' rose, brought the family international attention and great commercial success when it was introduced after World War II.
After Francis's early death in 1958, Louisette continued to breed roses, introducing many awarding winning new varieties.
Francis and Louisette's children, Alain and Michele, are both successful rose breeders and continue to manage the company.
Rose breeding in the Meilland family began with Joseph Rambaux (1820–1878), a gardener at Parc de la Tête d'Or.
Rambaux died in 1878 and left his roses to his wife Claudine, daughter Marie and son-in-law, Louis-Francois (Francis) Dubrueil (1842–1916).
[1] Two new Joseph Rambaux roses introduced by Dubreuil were polyanthas 'Perle d'Or' (1883), and 'Anna Maria de Montravel' (1897).
During his career, he established the French Society of rose growers and was an "officier du Mérite agricole".
(Order of Agricultural Merit)[4] Antoine ('Papa') Meilland (1884–1971) was born in 1884 on a small farm in Chambœuf, France.
A neighbor, Madame Meviere, introduced Antoine to his first rose, Rosa 'Noisettiana' ,(1814), which had just started blooming in her garden.
[5] 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 working with apple trees.
His parents, Antoine and Louisette Meilland were working for his grandfather, Francis Dubreuil's rose nursery in Lyon at the time of his birth.
[7] On one of their business trips in 1932, Francis and Antoine met with one of his father's clients, the rose breeder Francesco Paolina and his wife Marie-Elizabeth.
She met her future husband, Francis Meilland, at a meeting between their fathers, both rose growers in 1932, when she was twelve years old..
[9] Working alongside her husband, Louisette developed more than 120 new rose varieties over her multi-decade career.
[6] New York, NY - World-renowned rosarian and breeder of the Drift rose series, Alain Meilland, head of Meilland International, was honored at the annual Great Rosarians of the World (GROW) event earlier this month in New York City.
Some of her most popular rose varieties are: 'Botticelli', 'Petit Trianon', 'Jubilé du Prince de Monaco', and 'Sunshine Daydream'.
[12] The company employs over 800 people worldwide and owns rose trial gardens and test stations in France, the U.S. and Germany.
