The Peace rose is considered to be one of the world’s top roses. It has won more awards than any other rose including the prestigious All American Rose and National Gold Medal Certificate, both in 1947. Classified as a hybrid tea, its large flowers have an unconventional blend of light creamy yellow with pink edges.  It is easily recognized by rose admirers.
The president of the rose company that introduced Peace to the US said, “It was a great rose breakthrough and a great name at a time when the world needed a reason and a hope to rejoice.”
A French third generation commercial rose grower, Francis Meilland made the hybrid in 1935 and simply identified the plant as “3-35-40.” The seedling became a great specimen with lush, dark disease-resistant foliage and magnificent blooms. By the summer of 1939 the rose began receiving lots of attention. Rose growers from seven nations visited his nursery and the new unnamed rose. The threat of a German invasion overshadowed Meilland’s efforts to market the dazzling flower. In response he sent cuttings to growers in Italy, Turkey, Germany and the United States. On one of the last planes to leave France prior to the Nazi occupation, a cutting was sent to Robert Pyle, owner of Conard-Pyle, a large rose company. Meilland’s luck was changing.
Robert Pyle influenced the passage of the US Plant Patent Act of 1930, which allowed royalties to be paid to hybridizers. Pyle propagated the plants and sent them to the American Rose Society for testing. Meilland had no idea if the cuttings arrived safely due to the poor communications during the war years, but in 1944, after France was liberated, Pyle wrote to Meilland explaining that he planned to release the plants once the war ended. Imagine Meilland’s relief to read Pyle’s letter which said, “My eyes are fixed in fascinated admiration on a glorious rose. Its pale gold, cream and ivory petals blend to a lightly ruffled edge of delicate carmine. I am convinced it will be the rose of the century.”
Its official adoption by the American Rose Society was April 29, 1945, a date that coincidentally marked the fall of Berlin. Fitting that Pyle had chosen the name “Peace.”
When the first meeting of the United Nations delegates met in San Francisco that same year, the secretary of the American Rose Society sent each representative a bud vase containing “Peace” and a note that read, “We hope the Peace rose will influence men’s thoughts for everlasting world peace.”
Peace continues her influence on modern day roses. It has been involved in the pedigrees of more than 400 cultivars, and it has been conservatively estimated that there have been 30 – 40 million Peace plants grown since its introduction. Roughly 350,000 to 500,000 Peace rose plants are still grown each year.
The story of Peace began in turbulent times, but its namesake emerged to become the most famous rose in the entire world. A little “Peace” has accomplished a lot of good.

By Carolyn Melf