The U.S.
Postal Service is issuing a new Forever stamp celebrating one of the most
popular roses of all time. The new Peace Rose Forever stamp features a detail
from a photograph of the rose’s blossom, its creamy yellow petals touched at
the edges with pink. The peace rose revolutionized hybrid tea roses with
its unique coloring, hardiness and disease resistance.
The
First-Day-Of-Issue dedication ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday,
April 21, at the Gardens of the American Rose Center in Shreveport, LA.
Development of what was to become the Peace Rose began with a
famous rose-breeding family in mid-1930s France. In 1935, the Meilland family
had crossbred hundreds of roses hoping to create new commercially viable
varieties.
One of the crosses yielded a unique bloom with yellow
petals delicately edged with pink, which they named Madame A. Meilland.
Years later, as World War II escalated in Europe and France was
threatened with invasion, two packages of the new rose’s budwood were sent to
plantsmen in Germany and Italy.
A third package was entrusted to the U.S. consul, who took it
with him as he left France and promised to send it on to American grower
Conard-Pyle. This U.S. breeder cultivated the rose and sent cuttings to other
growers to test the plant in various climatic zones and soil conditions.
The trials were so successful that the rose was introduced April
29, 1945, and made available for sale to the public. With war still raging
across the globe, American growers selected a new name for the rose as a
reflection of the world’s most fervent desire: peace. 
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