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Throughout his life Georges Delbard was passionately interested
in gardening. The little boy encouraged by his teacher and his
uncle, the priest, who grafted his first roses on the family
farm at Malicorne in the Allier département, grew to
become a master gardener recognised and honoured all over the
world - what a marvellous career!
A first decisive moment was when the young man of 18 won first
prize for his chrysanthemums, and decided to make his living
from his passion, setting out on an exhilarating adventure -
that of horticulture.
Ideas take root very quickly: in 1935, Georges Delbard decided
to set up shop in Paris alongside the "greats" on
the Quai de la Mégisserie.
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IHere he opened his vegetable seeds and gardening products
shop with some bright new ideas about the ranges and presentation.
Thus was born the first "self-service" gardening shop.
An early pioneer in mail order, that same year he came up with
the first Delbard mail order catalogue for seeds and fruit trees.
At the same time he started creating varieties and producing
plants at his childhood home at Malicorne. Two hectares of pear
and apple trees were planted between 1942 and 1945 in the orchard
that was to be cradle of a veritable family saga.
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| Another major turning point in the life of Georges Delbard
was 1946, when, convinced that "one picture is worth a
thousand words" he set out independently in the production
of "Beaux-Fruits de France". The publication of this
book had international impact and was the real starting point
of the company and its development. Once he had prepared the
way for the development of his garden centres, mail order business,
production work at the Malicorne nurseries, research and creation
of new varieties of fruit and roses (his second passion), the
creation of huge high production orchards all over the world,
Georges Delbard set out to write his biography "Le Jardinier
du monde" then his "Anthologie de la rose" for
which at 92 years he showed the same enthusiasm as the boy with
green fingers at the little school in Malicorne. |
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| "Les Beaux-Fruits de France
d'hier et d'aujourd'hui" by Georges Delbard, the tree grower's
bible. |
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Georges Delbard was a man of communication and challenges,
and despite the fact that 1946 was still a period of great
uncertainty, he threw himself into the adventure of "Beaux-Fruits
de France". He produced the text, illustrated it
with colour photos and himself paid for the work to be
printed by Draeger (the best quality printing at that
time).
The publication of "Beaux Fruits de France"
was a tremendous event that bore unexpected fruit for
the Delbard company, establishing its reputation and allowing
it to start its technical and scientific research activities.
From then on Georges Delbard was trusted by growers all
over the world.
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From all over the place the little rural community
at Malicorne (Allier) in the Bourbon Combrailles region
received bundles of graft material for fruit varieties
"worth trying" in the experimental orchard.
This is how Georges Delbard was able to lay the foundations
for what was to be the very first conservatory of fruit
varieties in France, and soon the centre for creating
his own new varieties. The "Beaux Fruits de France"
is both an encyclopaedia and an album with practical information:
fruit tree cultivation, pomology (with several hundreds
of fruit varieties listed and illustrated), parasitology
etc.
The book is presented rather like a film strip, making
it easy to understand the sequence of operations (planting,
grafting, training, pruning, care, etc).
Details are given of old and contemporary varieties together
with new Delbard creations that were to become classics
in their turn (the Fertilia Delbard® delwilmor or
Delbard d'Automne® delsanne pears; the Delbard Jubilé®
delgollune, Delbarestivale® delcorf or Tentation®
delblush apples and many other fruits with real, tasty
flavour).
The up-dated edition of 1994 includes about a hundred
pages on progress made over the past few years in fruit
cultivation: training and production in the family garden
and commercial orchards, new varieties, economic aspects,
development and future prospects. It is one of a kind,
a truly unique reference book!
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"Les Beaux-Fruits de France d'hier et d'aujourd'hui"
Format 27 x 35 cm, 271 pages, nearly 300 colour reproductions
of both old and new fruit varieties.
Saint-Fiacre Prize 1994 from the Association des Journalistes
de l'Horticulture (French Association of Horticultural Journalists). |
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| Malicorne, a Passion for the
Land |
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While he laid out the 600 hectares of nurseries at Malicorne
in the Allier département, how many times might
Georges Delbard have thought with envy of the huge arable
plains of France! Nice flat fields, good rich earth easy
to cultivate - but once he had got over the worst of the
problems he never regretted his choice, indeed, on the
contrary.
It was a real challenge attempting to create an industrial
scale nursery in a region of pastureland at an altitude
of 400 m on the granite foothills of the Massif Central.
The microclimate at Malicorne exposes the plants alternately
to extremely cold and hot weather. This bracing climate
in fact has a positive effect on the strength and hardiness
of the plants, and encourages excellent root formation.
These qualities ensure they grow away well after replanting.
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After becoming the most important producer of trained
fruit trees in the world, George Delbard decided to learn
more about the behaviour of "the unknowns, full of
hopeful potential" by setting up an experimental
orchard at Malicorne where thousands of fruit varieties
have been studied, selected and cross-bred, including
1,516 apple, 528 pear, 1,178 peach, 405 plum and 559 cherry
varieties. All the observations are entered as they are
made in a big book, with sketch illustrations.
This orchard was the richest, and has grown to become
the most beautiful! By creating two rose gardens and a
vegetable garden, under-planting the generous trees with
an extraordinary range of flowering plants, roses, multi-coloured
perennials and sweet-smelling irises, laying out paths
for easy strolling and wide open spaces for seasonal events,
the orchard has been transformed into a garden.
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Henri Delbard has chosen to continue the
work of his father by offering this orchard to plant lovers.
Since July 2000 the Garden Orchard, or "Jardin-Verger
de Malicorne®" has become a non-profit making
organisation. Its basic mission is to share a plant heritage
that is unique in the world, to welcome serious enthusiasts
and the simply curious, to organise celebrations of the
five senses, workshops and days of discovery. |
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| Delbard and roses, a
real love story |
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Delbard's new rose varieties first see the day at Malicorne
and Commentry in the Allier département, family
home of the Delbards.
Research work for new varieties was started back in 1954
by Georges Delbard and was crowned with success ten years
later, with the birth of roses that have become great
classics: Grand Siècle® delegran, Centenaire
de Lourdes Rouge® delfloro, Madame Delbard® deladel
(the rose that sells the most world-wide), not forgetting
Comtesse de Ségur® deltendre, Papi Delbar®
delaby, Impératrice Farah® delivour, Nahéma®
deléri and Chartreuse de Parme® delviola...
In fact, Chartreuse de Parme®deviola has made history
by winning awards for its incredible scent in all the
Rose competitions in the capital cities of Europe!
Today, carrying on in the footsteps of his father, Henri
Delbard decides on the "marriages" and crosses
between the great rose families presenting characteristics
liable to give a good combination of colour, scent, flowering
qualities, habit, disease resistance, etc.
Each rose has a detailed family tree kept constantly up-to-date,
bearing in mind that a given character trait never disappears
completely and can crop up again at random during fertilisation.
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Cross fertilise a rose, raise its descendants
and perhaps find an offspring that is more vigorous or
has new colours, is a real life-long passion indeed;
To date Delbard has created 257 new rose varieties with
40,000 hybridisations each year, representing about ten
years of research, observation and meticulous care for
each of them.
The naming and launching of certain roses has left an
imperishable memory in the hearts of collectors of Delbard
roses, with their evocative names: Impératrice
Farah® created in recognition of a long friendship,
Juliette Gréco®delblabe the rose for the "pretty
kid" or "jolie môme" with its 131
olfactory notes, the Rose des Cisterciens®delarle
that celebrates the 9th centenary of the foundation of
Citeaux Abbey, Tour Eiffel 2000®delrugro and its astronaut
god-mother, Claudie Deshaye, and Paris 2000®delav
in the gardens at Bercy, Jardins de l'Essonne®delchame
in homage to the sumptuous gardens of this département,
Madame Figaro®delrona in the gardens of the Palais-Royal
for the magazine's twentieth birthday, etc.
And this autumn Henri Delbard rendered homage to the great
Chefs of France, with Michel Bras®deltil, a Sauvageonne®
Sans Souci® with its scent of lime flowers, and Guy
Savoy®delstrimen, a rare triumph of colours and subtle
scents.
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| Georges Delbard, gardener
of the world |
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After his book "Les Beaux Fruits de France"
was published in 1947, the name of Georges Delbard became
internationally famous.
In response to the demand he started observing and experimenting
with thousands of varieties with the aim of improving
fruit tree cultivation and satisfying in more detail the
needs of professionals and the pleasure of amateur gardeners:
to create a garden that is beautiful, useful and tastes
good!
With unquenchable energy Georges Delbard now became a
marathon consultant.
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Nothing was too far, too big or impossible
for him! That is how the huge intensive production orchards
were created in the four corners of the earth: United
States, U.R.S.S., China, Canada, North Africa, Brazil,
Lebanon, Yugoslavia and Rumania, Kenya and Chad, to name
just a few. A special mention must be given to Moghan
in Iran where a fabulous contract for three million fruit
trees was signed in 1974, the "Nursery contract of
the century"!
Today Delbard creations, whether roses or fruit trees,
are distributed all over the world by licence holder,
in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, South Africa, Eastern Europe,
Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Austria among other
countries.
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| But note that at Delbard, although globalisation means
"for the most people possible", it does not
mean uniform scents and flavours. Since taking over the
company from his father Henri Delbard has endeavoured
to show the humanist side of nature in his catalogues,
garden centres and in the Jardin-Verger de Malicorne®. |
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With his whole team of gardeners he carries
on developing teaching of the five senses with workshops on tastes,
scents or colours. To counter over-production by agriculture of fruit
with no flavour, in 1995 Henri Delbard set up a club for growers of
the new Tentation® delblush apple, for co-operatives in France,
Germany and England who undertake to abide by a quality charter and
not produce more than a certain tonnage.
Tentation® has thus become a "world" apple that will
be on the markets all year round now that growers from New Zealand
have joined the club! |
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| Delbard gardener of the future
- Delbard creator of nature |
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Research is the strong point that makes Delbard stand
out as a company, and on which its development is based.
The budget devoted to research represents 9% of the turnover
made by the Georges Delbard Nurseries and Rose Breeding.
Main landmarks:
> 1950 - creation of the experimental orchard
at Malicorne
> 1954 - start of hybridisation work to create
Delbard varieties of roses, at Evry.
> 1964 - construction of a unit for treating
fruit tree viral diseases by heat therapy, at Commentry.
> 1978 - start of work of "in vitro"
vegetative propagation of ligneous plants.
> 1980 - inauguration of the micropropagation
laboratory at Commentry.
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Over the past ten years Delbard has acquired very considerable
know-how in the "in vitro" propagation of
ligneous plants. At the beginning these programmes concerned
essentially roses and fruit tree rootstock, then ornamental
plants. Today this knowledge is put to use in new applications
with plants for industry and forestry (hevea, wild cherry,
walnut for timber, etc), for pharmaceuticals (Gingko
biloba, etc) or aromatic plants (strawberries, sloe,
etc).
Delbard has also taken part in several fundamental research
programmes
> June 2001 - Inauguration of the "Yves-Mazière"
research centre at Malicorne-Commentry comprising a
new group of glasshouses covering 4,500 m2 located next
to the biotechnology laboratory, destined for research
on rose varieties for the garden and for cut flowers.
This centre will help promote the synergies between
the different fruit, rose and biotechnology units.
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The research work addresses:
- the creation of new varieties by traditional hybridisation
methods.
- the introduction and selection, based on private or
public collections, of new varieties suitable for the
various types of customer.
- technical experiments in glasshouses and the open air
on new cultivars prior to their launch on the market.
- deep freezing of pollen
- retrieval and storage of embryonic plants
- genetic engineering.
Directed by Jean-Paul Reynoird, Doctor of plant physiology,
this new centre is concrete proof of the commitment of
the GEORGES DELBARD company to research.
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| A gardening heritage |
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Henri Delbard, younger son of Georges Delbard,
is at the helm of the company today. His elder son, Arnaud,
markets Delbard creations outside France. The name carries on!
Steeped in the family traditions and the heritage of his father,
Henri Delbard is taking his life's work still further - a life
totally dedicated to the search for quality, beauty, scent and
flavour. He continues to transmit his father's passion, skills
and know-how to the gardeners in the "four branches"
(market gardening, floriculture, fruit tree culture, nurseries-ornamental
plants), and hundreds of these gardeners have tilled the earth
with him, sowed, planted, grafted, pruned, treated and finally
harvested the fruits of their joint labours.
Henri Delbard also cultivates a fruitful dialogue with commercial
tree growers, amateur gardeners and consumers. In highly innovative
and very personal fashion he is transmitting the "Delbard
culture" to new generations, and through them to the future
gardeners of the world. |
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| Key dates |
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| 1935 - Georges Delbard opened his first
shop at 16 Quai de la Mégisserie in Paris. |
| 1947 - Publication of
the book "Les Beaux Fruits de France", a veritable
tree encyclopaedia produced and published by Georges Delbard.
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| 1950 - Creation of the experimental orchard
at Malicorne (cradle of the Delbard family in the Allier département),
for the selection and obtaining of new fruit varieties by hybridisation.
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| 1954 - Start of hybridisation
work at Evry for the creation of Delbard rose varieties. |
| 1964 - Construction at Commentry of a unit
for heat treatment of fruit tree viral diseases. |
| 1978 - Start of work
on "in vitro" vegetative propagation of ligneous plants.
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| 1980 - Inauguration of the micropropagation
laboratory at Commentry. |
| 1981 - Entry of Moët-Hennessy
into the capital of the DELBARD Group. |
| 1982 - DELBARD development in the green
house rose sector, mainly in Central America, with the variety
Madame DELBARD® deladel. |
| 1986 - In the context
of collaboration with LVMH, Henri Delbard took over the direction
of the Armstrong Roses nurseries in California. From 1989 onwards:
development and increase in the number of Delbard garden centres.
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| 1995 - Henri Delbard and the Delbard family
took back financial control of the Delbard group. |
| 1996 - Opening at Compiègne
of a new concept for garden centres with a new generation of
garden centres, illustrating a new direction for the DELBARD
name. |
| 1997 - Acquisition of garden centres at
Tarbes and Lourdes; opening of a garden centre at Aubière
(Clermont-Ferrand). |
| 1998 - Reconstruction
and renovation of the garden centre at Rueil, renovation of
the garden centre at Bénouville. |
| 1999 - Creation of the garden centre at
Beauvais. |
| 2000 - Creation of a
garden centre at Loos-en-Gohelle, on a former classified mining
site, "La Base 11/19". Opening of a new garden centre
at Le Mans |
| June 2001 - Inauguration of the new Yves-Mazière
Research centre at Malicorne - Commentry |
| October 2001 - Creation
of a garden centre at Besançon. |
| October 2001 - Launch of the Web site |
| March 2002 - Opening
of a new garden centre at Ris-Orangis (Evry). |
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