In 1912, he offered the very large-flowered chrysanthemums bred by Ernest Calvat of Grenoble. In 1913, his catalogue contained more than twenty chrysanthemum cultivars, of which eight were new and came into flower very early in the season, “très précoces.” In that same catalogue, he listed pansies, dahlias, geraniums, fuchsias, cannas, begonias, and new roses, many of which he had bred himself. Another series, perhaps in 1914, listed early-flowering dwarf chrysanthemums.
Nonin’s son Henri inherited the nursery in his turn, and continued to improve it until 1945. Henri was also a fine rosarian. The business finally closed in 1960, most probably for the same reasons the Lemoine nursery closed in Nancy at the same time. They had survived two punishing world wars but could not compete in the postwar environment. Too many external forces were making it more and more difficult to sustain a nursery in France. The Netherlands and Belgium began exporting the same flowers grown in France far earlier in the season. They forced them into bloom in huge greenhouses.
André-Philippe Pelé, Paris
Another early enthusiast was the Paris nurseryman André-Philippe Pelé. He raised his seeds in the south and was extremely thoughtful about which ones he selected for further study. Pierre Coindre of Avignon had bred the first early-blooming chrysanthemum in 1850. In 1855, Pelé exhibited his own series at the Société Nationale d’Horticulture show.
Dominique Pertuzès, rue des Chalets, Toulouse
Pertuzès started out as Bernet’s gardener at the age of seventeen but later began his own business. Pertuzès stole Bernet’s work and competed with him rather unscrupulously.
Alexandre de Reydellet, Valence
De Reydellet was the stationmaster at Bourg-les-Valence, Drôme, and chrysanthemums were his hobby. Some biographical information is available on de Reydellet (in Lyon horticole [1905] and Annuaire de la Société Nationale d’Horticulture de France [1899]), though where and when he was born remain a mystery. According to the Revue horticole (1905),
Alexandre de Reydellet died in October 1905. He was an amateur horticulturist in Bourg-les-Valence (Drôme). De Reydellet was a member of the Association Horticole Lyonnaise since 1891, and member of the SNHF since 1886. He was one of the founders of the Société Française des Chrysanthémistes. He was one of the first to sow chrysanthemums at a time when few seem to have observed that chrysanthemums gave seeds. He began about 1875 or 1877. He gave his first cultivars to Boucharlat the elder (Lyon) in 1882. Then he started to sell them himself. He received a lot of awards. The first medal of honour of the Société Française des Chrysanthémistes was for him. He was made Chevalier du Mérite Agricole.
One of de Reydellet’s earliest cultivars was ‘La Triomphante’ in 1877.
Joseph Rozain-Boucharlat (1849–1917), Lyon
Joseph was Laurent Boucharlat’s nephew. He had a very distinguished career, including founding and becoming president of the Société Française des Chrysanthémistes (an organization based on the English society) as well as vice president and councilor of the Société d’Horticulture Pratique du Rhône. He had studied in England and, amazingly for a Frenchman, admired English ways. Rozain-Boucharlat also worked with fuchsias, dahlias, and pelargoniums. His son Benoit (1886–1943) worked at Cuire-lès-Lyon.
Vilmorin-Andrieux, Paris
The seed house Vilmorin-Andrieux has been at the same address in Paris for more than two hundred years. It might be said to have become legendary. Philippe-Victoire Vilmorin (1746–1804), a physician with a keen interest in plants, founded the firm in 1775 after marrying the daughter of Pierre Andrieux, a seedsman and botanist in the quai de la Mégisserie. Andrieux’s wife, Claude Geoffroy, was the expert. Together they became the suppliers of seed to Louis XV, a huge advantage in those days. What happened at court set the standard for everyone else. The firm prospered for six generations, but about thirty-five years ago it was sold to a large conglomerate and is now part of Groupe Limagrain.
At the outset, Vilmorin-Andrieux concentrated on agricultural seed. Pierre-Victoire’s sons and grandsons developed important strains of sugar beets and carrots. These were very sensible if somewhat unglamorous business decisions and allowed Philippe-André (1776–1862) to move his family into an elegant chateau at Verrières, a former hunting lodge of Louis XIV, in 1815. They and their descendants transformed the park, designed by Le Nôtre, into an outstanding arboretum. It is just possible that this move may have been eased by the flight of its former aristocratic owners during the revolution. Vilmorin must have played his cards very cleverly to avoid being executed, in light of his association with the royal house.
Louis Vilmorin (1816–1860) did his work on the sugar beet at Verrières. His son Henry, an authority on the genetics of wheat, understood plant genetics very early and contributed to the advance of that science. The Vilmorins also maintained a key collection of potatoes. The company added ornamental plants very early and became known for its roses, introducing new varieties for many years. One or another of the Vilmorin brothers was always in demand as a judge or a speaker at floral society events. They also won prizes at chrysanthemum shows.
In the twentieth century, the sons continued to manage the firm, but Louise, the only girl, rebelled, becoming an avant-garde poet and novelist. She married and moved to the United States. In the complex shifts among large commercial horticultural enterprises over two hundred years, Vilmorin-Andrieux is one of the few companies that remained in business into the recent past. Its founders would not recognize it now, but adapting to change and moving forward are both qualities of successful firms.
MINOR FIGURES, FRANCE
Dr. Audiguier
Dr. Audiguier bred ‘Soleil Levant’, a rather memorable cultivar.
Monsieur Bernard, Toulouse
M. Bernard is another of those enigmatic breeders who left no other trace besides his cultivar ‘Gloria Rayonnante’.
André Charmet (1823–1897), Lyon
Charmet was born in Ghent, Belgium. He took over Hoste’s lucrative business in Lyon and continued to breed chrysanthemums.
Pierre Crozy l’ainé (1831–1903), Lyon
Pierre started a nursery at 206 Grande-rue de la Guillotiere, Lyon. His son Michel Crozy (1868–1906) took over his father’s nursery at his death when Pierre died. The late Thomas Brown, who reconstructed authentic historical landscapes, using only plants available during the relevant epoch, listed the dates of this establishment as 1870 to 1908.
Jean Heraud, Pont d’Avignon
Heraud was head gardener at the Villa Brimborion, Pont d’Avignon, in Provence. Only the name has endured, but he left a legacy of new chrysanthemums.
Marquis de Pins, Montbrun near Toulouse, Gers
The marquis owned a chateau at Montbrun near Toulouse, Gers, and devoted himself to breeding new chrysanthemums. The name de Pins appeared quite frequently in the horticultural literature of the day.
UNITED STATES
The chrysanthemum appeared very quickly in the United States after its arrival in Europe. Many other flowers had a similar trajectory. The first known hybrid chrysanthemum cultivar in the United States, ‘William Penn’, was exhibited by Robert Kilvington of Philadelphia at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in 1841. At that stage, all chrysanthemums were still grown outdoors, and both professional and amateur breeders worked with garden chrysanthemums. After about 1850, their culture was transferred to greenhouses. Amateur breeders took up the greenhouse flower very soon after this transition.
Some