La Rose Impériale celebrates the development of the modern repeat-blooming or remontant rose developed in France in the mid-nineteenth century. Before the introduction of Asian roses few if any European roses re-bloomed after their initial spring flowering. Like lilacs and peonies, early European roses only flowered once each season.
Organized in eight sections, the exhibit of 110 rare illustrated herbals and rose books, will focus on the period when the first Asian remontant roses became available to European rose growers. Within a few years these Asian roses were combined with the hardiness and fragrances of existing European roses to produce more than 4,000 hybrid remontant roses in a short 60 years.
The earliest rose image featured in the exhibit comes from a German herbal, Gart der Gesundheit, published in 1488, and features a hand-colored image of a native dog rose. The exhibit will also feature a hand-colored edition of John Gerard’s Herball from 1633 and Basil Besler’s Hortus Eyestettensis from 1640. The first published image of a red-flowered China rose, Slater’s Crimson China, printed in Curtis’ Botanical Magazine in 1774, will illustrate this important early remontant rose’s contribution to our modern roses.
The Temple of Flora, 1807, by Robert John Thornton and Mary Lawrance’s A Collection of Roses From Nature will be prominently displayed illustrating the rose at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Lawrance published between 1796 and 1799 has 90 hand colored images. It is the first monograph published on the rose and is one of the rarest of all rose books.
The central focus of La Rose Impériale will be The Huntington’s three-volume copy of Les Roses published between 1817 and 1824 by Pierre-Joseph Redouté in memory of the Empress Joséphine and her rose collection at the Château Malmaison just out side of Paris. With 170 stipple-engraved color portraits, many retouched by Redouté himself, Les Roses is universally acknowledged as one of the most beautiful and important works on the rose ever produced.
La Rose Impériale visitors will have an unique opportunity to experience the Redouté in person using a digitized ‘virtual book’ of Les Roses utilizing touch-screen interactive technology and a digital copy with all 170 of Redouté’s illustrations.
The next two sections of the exhibit focus on the development of remontant roses. The nineteenth century section features illustrations from The Beauties of the Rose by Henry Curtis published between 1850 and 1853 and the likes of William Paul, The Rose Garden, 1848, and Theodor Nietner, Die Rose, 1880, to illustrate the ongoing mid- century development of repeat-blooming roses. The exhibit moves into the twentieth century with Ellen Willmott’s two volumes of The Genus Rosa, 1910 to 1914, to demonstrate the continuing development of remontant roses.
The final section of the exhibit will speak to the rediscovery of our historic rose heritage in the mid to late-twentieth century, featuring works from Anne Marie Trechlin and Sacherverell Sitwell. This section also highlights books illustrating the re-awakening of gardeners to the fantastic heritage of Old Garden Roses being re-discovered and planted in modern gardens by authors like Graham Stuart Thomas, The Old Shrub Roses, 1966, in England and Nancy Steen, The Charm of Old Roses, 1966, in New Zealand.
To enhance the experience a section will feature a hands-on display of rose fragrance with rare rose oils from Bulgaria, Morocco, and Turkey. Illustrating the early development of perfumes will be Parfumeur François published in 1696 by Simon Barbe. Visitors to the exhibit will be able to experience for themselves multiple examples of rose waters and attars. This section will also feature a video on how new roses are produced from seed by contemporary plant breeders.
La Rose Impériale is the anchor of a yearlong celebration of The Huntington Rose Garden’s 100th anniversary. In addition to the exhibit, a monthly lecture series is planned featuring eminent local and international rosarians speaking on all phase of rose growing and culture on the third Sunday of most months throughout 2008. In March the Great Rosarians of the World Annual Lecture Series will honor William Radler, the hybridizer of the Knock Out™ series of highly disease resistant roses on Sunday, March 30 at The Huntington to be repeated in New York City at The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday, April 5. Huntington members can check the Calendar or join visitors and go to the website for detailed schedules of these exciting events.
La Rose Impériale will open on Saturday, February 9 and run through April 29, 2008 in the Boone Gallery at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. For more information on these events please contact Clair Martin at cmartin@huntington.org or 626.405.3507 and for other Huntington events and for maps and directions consult The Huntington’s website at http://www.huntington.org.
Clair Martin
October 6, 2007