Why were breeders so drawn to Peace in the first place, and why did it become so ridiculously popular? Are there any alternate routes yet to be taken with its ancestors?
The reference tab for ‘Peace’ on HelpMeFind may answer your question. ‘Peace’ has a very dramatic history and people love a good story
-Jonathan
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Peace wasn’t all that successful as a breeder. The contemporary Fashion has many more descendants.
The use of Peace by hybridizers correlates with it’s popularity which correlates with the timing of its introduction at the beginning of the post-WWII housing boom. Conard Pyle and Jackson Perkins had just developed the mail order market for roses and had the promotional juggernaut American Rose Society firmly in their grasp.
Are there any alternate routes yet to be taken with its ancestors?
The stated ancestry of Peace may not be correct. Somewhere on this site there is a discussion about it. The monograph on Peace at helpmefind.com also has comments in this regard.
If Souvenir de Claudius Pernet is, indeed, a grandparent of Peace then one alternate route has already given us Fashion:
Souvenir de Claudius Pernet > Julien Potin > Golden Rapture > Pinocchio > Fashion
I can partially answer this.
First, Peace had foliage with stronger resistance to downy than usual, and its stems had a higher resistance to winter fungal diseases, than what was typically available then. Second, most yellows were horrendous in many ways then. Yes, it was lighter, but it had a pink edge. Third, it bloomed more reliably than most HTs of that time. Fourth, it could produce colors many did not, because it both yellow and red backgrounds, and it had ambiguous color layers. Last, the petals were large and round. Something lost modern roses lost when the HPerpetual fad died out.
In other words, it was good enough and useful, but not perfect.
And then there is the symbolism from WW2, but that’s another aspect unrelated to its traits.
When you look at a list of descendants, consider the popularity of the rose for its time. The fact that a great many descendants exist does not necessarily reflect the real value of a parent so much as its prevalence. (Having said that, for its time, Peace was a pretty nice plant.)
I would argue that the efficiency of seed set might also be a factor in prevalence of progeny. Many big breeders do not mess with roses known to produce relatively few seeds. For us little guys lacking the ability to grow on thousands of seedlings for evaluating (I am looking at you, Carefree Beauty – I won’t be able to evaluate 800 pink OP seedlings of yours this season) I think there might be a little more value in those other prospective parents.
I visited the Meilland family breeding grounds in Les Cannet des Maures a few years ago. They said that peace’s popularity was really serendipity. It was WWII and that was what the world needed. Also Francis Meilland toured the US and all of North and South America at the time popularizing it.