Roseraie du Val-de-Marne Facts for Kids

Roseraie du Val-de-Marne or Roseraie de L'Haÿ is a beautiful rose garden located in L'Haÿ-les-Roses, a town in Val-de-Marne, France. It's a famous place where many different kinds of roses grow.

How the Rose Garden Started
Special Roses from This Garden
Where to Find the Garden
Images for kids
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How the Rose Garden Started

Jules Gravereaux in his rose garden in 1900

The story of this amazing rose garden began in 1892. A wealthy man named Jules Gravereaux bought a big piece of land in L'Haÿ, which is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) south of Paris. He had made a lot of money from the Bon Marché department store in Paris.

Jules Gravereaux wanted to create a special garden. He hired a famous garden designer, Édouard André, to help him. They planned a garden that would have 1,600 different roses! Many people say this was the very first garden made just for roses.

Growing New Kinds of Roses

Jules Gravereaux loved roses and collected them from all over Europe. He also started to create new types of roses. His goal was to grow roses that would be perfect for making rose oil, which is used in perfumes. He worked on mixing different roses, like the Rosa rugosa plant.

He created 27 new kinds of roses, mostly for making perfume. One very famous and fragrant rose, called 'Roseraie de L'Haÿ', was named after this garden. It has beautiful crimson-purple flowers.

By 1910, the Roseraie de L'Haÿ was at its biggest, with 8,000 different roses. It had every type of rose known at that time!

The Town Gets a New Name

The rose garden became so famous that in May 1914, the town of L'Haÿ officially changed its name to L'Haÿ-les-Roses. This means "L'Haÿ the roses," showing how important the garden was to the town.

The Garden Today

Today, the Roseraie du Val-de-Marne is laid out in thirteen special sections. It has a huge collection of 13,100 rose bushes, with 3,200 different kinds of roses!

The garden is divided into areas. One side has modern French and international roses. In the middle, there's a formal rose garden with a reflecting pool. The other side features old garden roses and classic types.

This garden is so important that it has been named a historic monument. Its special buildings, called pavilions, are also protected.

In the year 2000, the Roseraie de L'Haÿ was honored with a special marker. This marker is part of the official Méridienne verte (Green Meridian). This line is a continuation of the Paris meridian, a famous line that goes through Paris. Some people might know about it from the book The Da Vinci Code. This line is also sometimes called the "Serpent Rouge" or the "Rose Line."

Special Roses from This Garden

Some beautiful roses were first created or named here:

Rosa rugosa var. "Amélie Gravereaux" (1903)
Rosa rugosa var. "Roseraie de L'Haÿ" (1901)
Rosa var. "Mme Jules Gravereaux", a Climbing Tea Rose (1901)

There's also a tea rose from Brazil named Rhodologue Jules Graveraux, after the garden's founder.

Where to Find the Garden

The Roseraie du Val-de-Marne is located about 8 kilometers (5 miles) south of Paris. You can find it on Rue Albert Watel in L'Haÿ-les-Roses, Val-de-Marne, France.