Jean Pernet, père

Jean Claude Pernet, père (October 15, 1832 - March 31, 1896) was a French rosarian known for his cultivation of rose cultivars. He was born to a family of rose growers in Villeurbanne, Rhône, near the city of Lyon. His father, Claude Pernet, established a rose nursery in 1845.

Among rose breeders today, Jean Pernet is known as 'Pernet pere' and was one of the first hybridizers who sought out novelties. He developed the Baroness de Rothschild Hybrid Tea rose in 1868, named for Baroness Caroline von Rothschild. In 1874, he named a Moss rose 'Soupert & Notting' in honour of his Luxembourg rose breeding colleagues. Among his numerous creations are:

*'Caroline Küster' - (Noisette) 1872
*'Mme. Souveton' - (Portland) 1874
*'Louis Gimard' - (Moss) 1877
*'Cecile Brunner' - (Polyantha) 1881
*'Merveille de Lyon' - (Hybrid Perpetual) 1882
*'Souvenir de Victor Hugo' - (Hybrid Perpetual) 1885
*'Triomphe des Noisettes' - (Noisette) 1887
*'Marchioness of Salisbury' - (Hybrid Tea) 1890

Using "Rosa foetida" in 1887, he and his son, Joseph Pernet-Ducher, began developing a yellow rose through a cross between a red hybrid perpetual and 'Persian Yellow'. After Jean Pernet's death in 1896, his son carried on the experiments and developed a world-wide reputation in 1900 when he introduced the 'Soleil d'Or', the first yellow Hybrid Tea. This rose it is now recognized as the first of the Pernetiana Roses (Roses of Pernet) and an important ancestor of 'Peace', introduced by Meilland in 1945.