I love the story of Josephine and her connection with roses. The history of the rose without France's Empress Josephine would be like the history of Europe without Napoleon.
There are two lovely roses (blooming right now!) at the National Rose Garden at Woolmers commemorating the Empress Josephine and her garden.
The famous climbing rose 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' was named in honour of Josephine's famous garden at the Chateau de Malmaison, near Paris. But, as it was only bred after her death she never saw its beauty or smelled its delicious perfume.
'Empress Josephine' was named for the beautiful Empress. The Grand Duke Michael of Russia was invited to name this almost thornless rose. He chose to honour Josephine because as a young man he had been in love with her. But she refused him because she thought she could never live in Russia - it would be much too cold for her.
Josephine was born on the Island of Martinique and she was a widow at 33 years old when she first met the much younger Napoleon. Despite the difference in their ages, they fell in love and were married in 1796.
When he became the Emperor of France, Napoleon bought Chateau de Malmaison for her and it was there Josephine gathered together the largest collection of roses ever up to her time.
Roses were her passion and special arrangements were even made by both British and French Navies for the safe transit of new China roses detined to improve Josephine's collection. And this was in spite of the fierce naval battles that were raging between England and France during the Napoleonic wars.
France dominated rose breeding until just before the First World War and many roses are, therefore, French in origin and bear French names.
Josephine had 250 different named roses in her garden. This relatively small number illustrates how the breeding of roses has multiplied world-wide since - into many hundreds of thousands.
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