Roseraie du Val-de-Marne, Rose garden in L'Haÿ-les-Roses, France
The Roseraie du Val-de-Marne is a rose garden south of Paris that displays over 13,000 rose bushes representing about 3,200 different varieties. The plants are arranged in thirteen formal sections organized around a central reflecting pool.
Jules Gravereaux, a former Bon Marché executive, founded the garden in 1894 and worked with landscape architect Édouard André to establish this specialized rose collection. The location became an important center for developing new rose varieties.
The garden's name comes from the town it reshaped: in May 1914 L'Haÿ officially became L'Haÿ-les-Roses in honour of the rose garden. Its thirteen sections are thematic, from the Allée de l'histoire des roses to the Jardin des roses galliques and a copy of Joséphine de Beauharnais's Malmaison collection. A marker on the Méridienne verte, the Paris meridian line, stands in the park.
The garden lies on Rue Albert Watel in L'Haÿ-les-Roses, about 8 km south of Paris; from Paris take RER line B to Bourg-la-Reine, then bus 172 to the Parc de la Roseraie stop. It opens daily, with longer hours in summer and shorter ones in winter. Paths are flat gravel, and the sunken basin in the central French rose garden has a stone rim but no railing.
The garden was originally created to develop new rose hybrids for perfume production, resulting in 27 new varieties being bred here. The most notable creation is the Rosa rugosa Roseraie de L'Haÿ, a variety still grown in gardens worldwide today.
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