Dominico Aicardi was a famous Italian rose breeder of the 1930s. He was mayor of San Remo.
[From Modern Roses II, p. 5:] Cav. Domenico Aicardi, San Remo, Italy.
Aicardi Bros.
[From The Rose Annual, 1981, p. 114-5:] Stelvio Coggiatti: Domenico Aicardi was born on 16 March 1878, and died 12 February 1964. His father, a physician attached to the Italian Railways, finally settled in San Remo. There Domenico, with the help of his brother Luigi, became a carnation grower and hybridist. Later on he was appointed President of the Experimental Station in San Remo, and Mayor of the town.....He wrote a book of 270 pages I Garofarni Rifiorenti (The Everblooming Carnations), and he followed it twenty years later with a classic manual, La Rosa.
He had an enchanting personality and manner of speaking, so that the leading European and American rosarians were attracted to visit his home, the Villa Minerva. I had the honour to interview him, little knowing that I was doing it only a fonnight before his death, and I send a photograph I took of him on that occasion.
His great friend was Quinto Mansuino, and the nephews of Quinto, Ada and Michele, are considered to be Domenico Aicardi's spiritual heirs in the breeding of roses. Starting his rose stock with one hundred plants acquired in France in winter 1928, of 'Dame Edith Helen', 'Julien Potin' and 'Sensation', only three years later, the fortune favours the bold, Domenico Aicardi had available varieties 'Saturnia', 'Primavera' and 'Medusa' which were to win all the prizes for Italian novelties at the Rome 1933 competition. At short intervals followed 'Signora', 'Eternal youth' and 'Rome Glory', Italian roses which have embellished the gardens and flower shop windows of the world.
[From The Rose Bulletin 1973, page 28.
Stelvio Coggiatti: Dominico Aicardi died on February 12, 1965....
[From Sublime Rosa, by Vittorio Barni and Carlo Medici, pp. 73-74:] Domenico Aicardi was born in 1878, the son of a doctor, and died in San Remo in 1964... he went to school in Zurich and England... he imported a number of rose varieties from other countries... these roses formed the nucleus of his breeding program from which he derived many beautiful varieties in the 30s and 40s... 'Gloria di Roma' is perhaps Aicardi's most famous rose. It is grown all over Europe and the United States. In the municipal rose garden in Genova Mori, there is a collection of the more important varieties obtained by Aicardi. Others can be found in other public and private collections.
[From Botanica's Roses, p. 677:] Aicardi was active in San Remo between the 1930s and the 1950s.
[From The Ultimate Rose Book, by Stirling Macoboy, p. 458:] He remains Italy's best-known raiser, remembered today for 'Signora Piero Puricelli' (1936), and also for 'Glory of Rome' and 'Eternal Youth' (both from 1937)...
