Newsletter  (Feb 2014)  Page(s) 13-14.  Includes photo(s).
 
[From "Seven Disappearing Roses", by Darrell g.h. Schramm, pp. 11-17]
‘Mme Elisa de Vilmorin’ is a very early, pre-‘La France’ hybrid tea bred by Louis Leveque in 1864. The pink flowers have rounded petals, about thirty, imbricated like those of a dahlia. In California the rose blooms in all four seasons, taking a short siesta between each exuberance. Its scent is of citrus, quite strongly so. The buds are very pointed, and the reflexive sepals exhibit a few white hairs, one sepal being foliaceous (feathery). It is generous in producing prickles from base through stem (peduncle), mostly straight. The leaves, slender, lanceolate, and dark green, recall the tea rose. And, like a tea, the bush is somewhat willowy. In a large container, where mine grows, it stretches only to about 30 inches in height....
Madame Elisa de Vilmorin was a botanist who married in 1841 into the famous Vilmorin family at age 15. The House of Vilmorin, an enterprise known for its horticultural and agricultural advancements, had been established, along with its nursery, in 1727. It still exists. As a botanist, Elisa de Vilmorin was the first to publish a description of the hybrid petunia, the first to describe the marsh marigold, and the first female member of France’s Botanical Society. When her husband, Pierre Louis Leveque de Vilmorin (not to be confused with the rose breeder Louis Leveque) died, leaving her a widow at age 34, she became the first woman president of the huge family business. She also cultivated and named the California strawberry. A woman of firsts. With the onslaught of a chest ailment (probably TB), she had her son Henri assume responsibility for Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co. She died four years after the rose was dedicated to her.

Book  (Apr 1993)  Page(s) 337.  
 
Mme. Elisa de Vilmorin Hybrid Perpetual, dark carmine, 1864, ('Mme. Eliza de Vilmorin'); Lévêque. Description.

Book  (Jun 1992)  Page(s) 269.  
 
Mme Elisa de Vilmorin Hybrid Tea. Lévêque, 1864. [Author cites information from different sources. From the Revue Horticole: 'Vilmorin (Mme Elisa). -- wife of Louis Lévêque de Vilmorin, née Bailly, associated with Maison Vilmorin [French seedsmen] from 1860 to 1866. A woman of great culture and intelligence. Produced a notable book Les Fraisiers.]

Book  (May 1992)  Page(s) 392.  
 
Mme. Eliza de Vilmorin Hybrid Tea. Leveque (France) 1864... One of the first Hybrid Teas... deep carmine...

Website/Catalog  (1982)  Page(s) 26.  
 

Mme. Elisa de Vilmorin (Hybrid Tea) One of the first H.T.’s.  Double, deep carmine, fragrant with upright growth. 1864. (R) 3 x 3’.

Book  (1936)  Page(s) 737.  
 
Vilmorin, Mme. Elisa de (HP) Lévêque 1864; blood-red to scarlet, shaded brown, medium to large, double, autumn-bloomer, hook-like prickles, short branches, growth 7/10. Sangerhausen

Book  (1899)  Page(s) 108.  
 
Madame Elisa Vilmorin, HR, Lévêque, 1864, écarlate et brun

Website/Catalog  (1880)  Page(s) 239.  
 
Rosiers Hybrides (remontants)
395. Madame Elisa Vilmorin. — Grande, pleine, beau rose vermillon.

Book  (1880)  Page(s) Annex, p. 78.  
 
hybrid perpetual. Madame Elise Vilmorin (Lévêque, 1865), dark scarlet-red, shaded brown, large, double, a vigorous Rose blooming until frost, suitable for forcing.

Magazine  (23 Mar 1867)  Page(s) 121.  
 
"Roses and the frost at Stamford" by Charles Laxton
During the nights of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of January my thermometer registered here, in a walled garden at five feet from the ground, and in the open, 23°, 21°, 22°, and 22° of frost respectively... The snow here froze on the branches, and was three inches deep on the ground.... My list of uninjured (No. 1) may therefore be relied upon as containing only thoroughly hardy sorts.
Hybrid Perpetuals
Madame Elise Vilmorin