Jean-Baptiste André Guillot (9 December 1827 – 6 September 1893) was a nurseryman and rose hybridizer in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, son of nurseryman and rose hybridizer Jean-Baptiste Guillot (10 December 1803 – 18 April 1882). Jean-Baptiste the son is known as Guillot Fils, and Jean-Baptiste the elder as Guillot Père. Guillot Fils is best known as the creator of the rose 'La France', considered to be the first

hybrid tea rose Hybrid tea is an informal horticultural classification for a group of garden roses. The first hybrid tea roses were created in France in the mid-1800s, by cross-breeding the large, floriferous Garden roses#Hybrid perpetual, hybrid perpetuals with ...

, introduced in 1867.

Biography

Jean-Baptiste Guillot (Père) opened a rose nursery in the La Guillotière area of Lyon in 1829, and Jean-Baptiste André (Fils) grew up working in the nursery from the age of 14. Guillot Père was the first nurseryman in Lyon to concentrate on the propagation of roses, produced new hybrids himself, and propagated and introduced new hybrids created by others, primarily Hybrid Perpetuals and Teas. Guillot Fils, while working for his father, pioneered the propagation of rose rootstocks from seed rather than cuttings. The roses used for rootstocks at that time were the wild species '' Rosa canina'', the dog rose, and ''

Rosa rubiginosa ''Rosa rubiginosa'' (sweet briar, sweetbriar rose, sweet brier or eglantine; synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''R. eglanteria'') is a species of rose native to Europe and western Asia. Description It is a dense deciduous shrub 2–3 meters high and ac ...

'', the sweetbriar or eglantine. In 1850, Guillot Fils married Catherine Berton. He started his own nursery in 1852, in the Montplaisir district of Lyon. Their son Pierre Guillot was born on November 13, 1855. Pierre began working in the family business in 1884, under the name Guillot and Son. Pierre took over management in 1892. Guillot Fils was an Honorary Member of the (Royal) National Rose Society in London. One of his roses had been chosen by the Society of Horticulture of Lyon as being worthy of the name 'La France'. Guillot Fils died in 1893, leaving Pierre in charge of a thriving business with an international reputation.

Contributions

Guillot Fils revolutionized the production of rose rootstocks through the use of seed propagation, rather than rooting cuttings. He created two new classes of roses, the hybrid tea and the polyantha. He created the first Tea rose with anything like a true yellow color, 'Mme. Hoste', which was later used as the pollen parent for the still-popular yellow tea rose 'Lady Hillingdon'. His pink Tea rose 'Catherine Mermet' was a popular florist rose in the late 19th century. His nursery is still in operation in the 21st century, and still hybridizes new rose varieties.

Partial List of Guillot Père and Fils Cultivars

*'Mme. Brevy' (1848) *'Mme. Falcot' (1858) *'Catherine Guillot' (1861) * 'La France' (1867) *'Catherine Mermet' (1869) *'Pâquerette' (1875) *'Mignonnette' (1880) *'Mme. Hoste' (1887)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guillot, Jean-Baptiste Andre Rose breeders Businesspeople from Lyon 1827 births 1893 deaths