Vilmorin

Last updated
Vilmorin SA
Type Public
Euronext:  RIN
Industry Agriculture
PredecessorAndrieux (from 1742)
Chez Vilmorin-Andrieux (from 1775)
Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie (from 1815)
Vilmorin SA (from 1986)
Vilmorin & Cie (from 1992)
Vilmorin Clause & Cie (from 1997)
Founded1743;279 years ago (1743)
FounderClaude Geoffroy & Pierre Andrieux
Headquarters,
France
Area served
Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East, Australia
ProductsSeeds
Number of employees
750
Parent Limagrain
Subsidiaries Vilmorin Iberica (Spain, Portugal), Vilmorin Italia (Italy), Vilmorin North America (USA, Canada), Vilmorin Do Brasil (Brazil), Vilmorin Atlas (Morocco), Vilmorin Anadolu Tohumculuk (Turkey), OOO Vilmorin (Russia), Semillas Shamrock Internacional (Mexico, Central America)
Website https://www.vilmorincie.com/en/
Plate 30
Album Vilmorin (1879) Vilmorin-Andrieux00.jpg
Plate 30
Album Vilmorin (1879)

Vilmorin is a French seed producer. The company has a long history in France, where it was family-controlled for almost two centuries, and today exists as a publicly traded company owned principally by agro-industrial cooperative Groupe Limagrain, the largest plant breeding and seed company in the European Union.

Contents

History

Advertisement in Le Miroir (1914) Vilmorin-1914.jpg
Advertisement in Le Miroir (1914)

Vilmorin was founded as a plant and seed boutique in 1743 by seed expert Claude Geoffroy and her husband Pierre Andrieux, the chief seed supplier and botanist to King Louis XV. The store was located on the quai de la Mégisserie, a street in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. In 1774, their daughter married botany enthusiast Philippe-Victoire Levêque de Vilmorin (1746-1804). Together, they revived the stores and created the Vilmorin-Andrieux House, which later became Vilmorin-Andrieux and Company under the leadership of their son, Philippe André de Vilmorin (1776-1862). Philippe-Victoire de Vilmorin began importing trees and exotic plants into Europe in 1766, starting with the American tulip tree, the domesticated beet, and the rutabaga. Such plants were unknown in Europe prior to Vilmorin-Andrieux's commercial promotion of them for food, fodder and ornamentation.

The Vilmorin estate in the Paris suburb of Verrières-le-Buisson, a former hunting lodge of Louis XIV of France, became known for its gardens and arboretum, and the Vilmorin company was headquartered in Verrières-le-Buisson, where it was led by a succession of Vilmorin heirs, including Louis de Vilmorin (1816-1860), Elisa Bailly de Vilmorin (1826-1868), [1] Henry de Vilmorin (1843-1899), Maurice de Vilmorin (1849-1918), Philippe de Vilmorin (1872-1917), Jacques de Vilmorin (1882-1933), Louis de Vilmorin (1883-1944), Louise de Vilmorin (1902-1969), Olivier de Vilmorin (1904-1962), Roger de Vilmorin (1905-1980), and André de Vilmorin (1907-1987). [2]

The company produced the first seed catalog for farmers and academics. In 1856, Louis de Vilmorin published "Note on the Creation of a New Race of Beetroot and Considerations on Heredity in Plants", establishing the theoretical groundwork for the modern seed-breeding industry. The company's leaders continued to publish numerous botanical academic articles throughout the company's early history.

In 1972 the company was acquired by René Hodée, a farmer from the Anjou region who relocated the company to La Ménitré, a town to the southwest of Paris. Three years later, in 1975, he sold the company to Groupe Limagrain, which changed the name from Vilmorin-Andrieux to Vilmorin SA in 1986, and in 1989 created the Oxadis division to specialize in Vilmorin's home vegetable garden activities, including vegetable seeds, flowers and trees, plant health products, and various pet and garden supplies for the amateur market. Following this restructuring, Vilmorin focused on vegetable seeds and trees for professionals (growers, seed producers, and nurseries).

Bibliography

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The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Rubra' was reputedly cloned from a tree found by Vilmorin in a wood near Verrières-le-Buisson in the 1830s. It was listed in the 1869 Catalogue of Simon-Louis, Metz, France, as Ulmus campestris rubra, and by Planchon in de Candolle's Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis (1873) as Ulmus libero-rubra: 'Orme à liber rouge' [:elm with red inner bark]. Elwes and Henry (1913) and Bean (1936) listed it as Ulmus montana [:U. glabraHuds.] var. libro-rubro, the former stating that the tree appeared "identical" to Simon-Louis's Ulmus campestris rubra. A specimen in the Zuiderpark, The Hague, was identified in 1940 as a wych elm cultivar, U. glabraHuds.libero rubro.

Louis de Vilmorin

Pierre Louis François Lévêque de Vilmorin, usually referred to as Louis de Vilmorin, the grandson of Philippe André de Vilmorin, and a member of the family firm of Vilmorin-Andrieux, devoted his life to biology and chemistry, with a focus on the breeding and cultivation of plants.

Arboretum municipal de Verrières-le-Buisson

The Arboretum municipal de Verrières-le-Buisson, more formally the Arboretum municipal de Verrières-le-Buisson, Réserve naturelle volontaire Roger de Vilmorin, Maison des Arbres et des Oiseaux, is a municipal arboretum located at 1, voie de l'Aulne, Verrières-le-Buisson, Essonne, Île-de-France, France. It is open weekends without charge.

The Arboretum Vilmorin is a private arboretum located at 2 rue d'Estienne d'Orves, Verrières-le-Buisson, Essonne, Île-de-France, France. It is open by appointment only. A newer portion of the family arboretum was acquired by the municipality in 1975, and is now open to the public as the Arboretum municipal de Verrières-le-Buisson.

Philippe André de Vilmorin

Pierre-Philippe-André Levêque de Vilmorin, more commonly known as Philippe André de Vilmorin, was a notable French horticulturist.

Philippe de Vilmorin

Joseph-Marie-Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin, generally known as Philippe de Vilmorin, was a noted French botanist and plant collector, and a member of the celebrated Vilmorin family of horticulturists.

Groupe Limagrain

Limagrain is an international agricultural co-operative group, specialized in field seeds, vegetable seeds and cereal products. Founded and managed by French farmers, Limagrain is the 3rd largest seed company in the world through its holding Vilmorin & Cie, European leader for functional flours through Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients, 2nd largest French baker and 3rd largest French pastry maker through Jacquet-Brossard.

Mapie de Toulouse-Lautrec

Marie Pierre "Mapie" de Toulouse-Lautrec (1901–1972) was a French journalist and food writer, born Marie Pierre Adélaïde Lévêque de Vilmorin in Verrières-le-Buisson, scion of the Vilmorin seed company. Her horticulturalist father was Joseph Marie Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin (1872-1917), and her mother was the former Bertha Marie Mélanie de Gaufridy de Dortan (1876-1937). The writer Louise de Vilmorin (1902–1969) was her younger sister, while one of her younger brothers, Roger, was the result of an affair between her mother and Alfonso XIII of Spain. Her other siblings were Henri, Olivier, and André.

Henry de Vilmorin

Charles Henry Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin was a French botanist, the son of Pierre François "Louis" Lévêque de Vilmorin (1816-1860) and Elisa Bailly (1826-1868), and grandfather of the novelist, poet and journalist, Louise de Vilmorin. Seven generations of the family of Vilmorin contributed greatly to French agriculture for over two hundred and thirty years by their improvements of sugar-beet and wheat - they published more than three hundred and sixty articles on plants in agriculture, horticulture, floriculture and botany.

Marie Say

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<i>Eremurus <span style="font-style:normal;">×</span> isabellinus</i> Species of flowering plant

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Elisa-Honorine Champin

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References

  1. she directed the firm between 1860 and 1866, see Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. Taylor & Francis. p. 1329. ISBN   9780415920407.
  2. "Vilmorin Dynastie et Patrimoine: Une famille au cœur de l'histoire". Depuis la fondation de la maison il y a 250 ans, Vilmorin s'inscrit en filiation directe avec l'excellence. C'est l'étude de la médecine qui amène Philippe Victoire de Vilmorin, créateur de la maison Vilmorin, remarquable scientifique, à l'étude de la botanique. Ses travaux ont un retentissement bien au-delà des frontières de la France. Si bien que le roi Louis XV le fit "Maître Grainier et Botaniste de sa Majesté le roi de France.