“In Paris, during the early part of the nineteenth century, there was rosomania, resulting from the first wife of Napoleon, Joséphine, who was a passionate gardener. After she was replaced by a younger wife, who was of royal lineage and could give Napoleon an heir, Joséphine lived at the Château de Malmaison (“House of Misfortune”), seven miles west of central Paris, where she transformed the dilapidated estate’s plain surroundings into a glorious garden with more than two hundred varieties of roses. Plants were brought in from England and China, and Joséphine’s enthusiasm was so infectious that between 1810 and 1830 there was a heyday for roses, in which France became a mecca for their hybridization.
Even the way that roses develop their petals into blossoms was reconceived, and the flowers were induced to repeat-blossom many times in a season and last longer once they were cut and displayed in a vase. But after Joséphine’s death, at only fifty-one—from pneumonia, after a walk in her garden—Malmaison fell into decline, the grounds were sold off piecemeal, the roses were dug up by thieves, and all traces of the imperial garden vanished. Joséphine’s real name, in fact, was Rose, but Napoleon wanted her to have a more regal-sounding one. Though she lived with emus, black swans, sheep, gazelles, antelopes, and llamas at Malmaison, it is said that she died of a broken heart.”
— Henri Cole, Orphic Paris
