Jacques-Louis Descemet (1761-1839)
[From Journal d'agriculture, 1829, p. 52] List of main amateur non-commercial rose collectors, but who make exchanges. ...France...Descemet, owner, at Lille
[From Statistique horticole de Maine-et-Loire, 1842, p. 11:] Descemet (décédé).
[From The First Gallicas Raised in France: 1804-1815, by Francois Joyaux, p. 1:] in 1785, Jacques-Louis Descemet (1761-1839), a nurseryman based in Paris, who had just inherited the nursery from his parents, cultivated 6000 ornamental roses; of this total 4500 were centifolias.
[From Gallica Hybrids in France: 1804 to 1848, by Francois Joyaux, p. 45:] Descemet was another great rose grower of the Empire period. His nursery was at St-Denis near Paris. In 1815 his nurseries were destroyed during the war and at that time he had imported or bred more than a hundred Gallicas -- in fact 109 are known.
[From A Celebration of Old Roses, by Trevor Griffiths, p. 40:] Descemet was a close friend of Vibert... it was Vibert who very hurriedly removed tens of thousands of rose seedlings from Descemet's rose fields to his own nurseries, so that they would not be destroyed by the armies opposing Napoleon as they advanced on Paris in 1815...
[From The Rose Garden, by William Paul, pp. 15-16:] The patronage of the Empress [Josephine at Malmaison] gave an impetus to Rose culture. Establishments were soon formed solely for the purpose, among the earliest of which were those of M. Descemet and M. Vibert, and the taste spread throughout Europe. It has been said that the collection of the former at St Denis was destroyed by the English troops in 1815, but I believe they were sold to M. Vibert and removed to Chenevieres-sur-Marne on the approach of the allied troops.
[From The Old Rose Advisor, by Brent C. Dickerson, p. 13:] events of 1814 and 1815 forced [Descemet] to take his knowledge and efforts elsewhere [Russia]... [Vibert prevented] his large and interesting collection from being dispersed...
[From The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book, p. 10:] Descemet, the nurseryman at St Denis, had some ten thousand seedlings when the Allies prepared to march into Paris in 1815... these were rescued by Vibert and taken to safety on the Marne...
[From The Old Rose Informant, by Brent C. Dickerson, p. 5: In 1820, Jean-Pierre Vibert wrote that in his catalog, he] put a capital D after the names of those found [among his seedlings] by Monsieur Descemet; I believe that I owe this modest mark or recognition to that estimable grower...
[Ibid, p. 7:] From numerous seedlings over more than a dozen years... more than two hundred interesting varieties have come... events of 1814 and 1815 forced [Descemet] to take his knowledge and industriousness to a foreign land... Descemet is today [1820] professor of agriculture and director of the botanical garden at Odessa... as a result of the events of the war [circa 1814-1815 most of Descemet's breeding notes were destroyed]
[Ibid, p. 12: In 1820, Vibert reported that he had] already sent to [Descemet in] Odessa more than three hundred and fifty varieties or species of roses; and I have a standing order to send there whatever new material of this genus I can obtain in the future...
[Ibid, p. 25:] In 1810, Monsieur Descemet... brought together the greatest number [of roses]; it is from this time that seedlings of some important began to appear; and [Vibert's first seedlings] were only in 1812... [Vibert] bought, in 1814 and 1815, all the roses in [Descemet's] collection [of about 250 species or varieties... in addition to these] he had about ten thousand seedlings, of which half were three or four years old. Nearly all these roses bloomed in 1816, 1817, and 1818.
[Ibid, p. 54, Jean-Pierre Vibert wrote in 1824:] In 1814 and 1815, Monsieur Descemet had his nurseries destroyed by the English troops; and, as a result of this disaster, was obliged to go out of business... Monsieur Descemet, unfortunately for him, was mayor of St.-Denis during one of these invasions, and the soldiers made him pay the price for it. For a long time, he solicited the government for help -- in vain... and thus it was that one of our main growers was forced to depend on foreigners [Descemet went to Russia to work on the estates of the Czar]
[From The Old Rose Adventurer, by Brent C. Dickerson, p. 100:] Descemet was one of the first to practice controlled cross-breeding, keeping written records of his crosses and the behavior of his breeding material...
[Ibid, p. 102:] Professor of Agriculture and Director of the botanical garden and nurseries of the Czar of Russia at Odessa...
