De Vink, Jan

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De Vink, Jan

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Photo courtesy of scvirginia

Rose Breeder and Author

Listing last updated on Sat Apr 2025

Netherlands

[From Miniature Roses: Their Care and Cultivation, by Sean McCann, p. 10: The author discusses how Jan de Vink got his start with Conard-Pyle and the rose 'Tom Thumb'...] With the money from Conard-Pyle he was able to expand, build a greenhouse and begin to breed more and more roses. Even then he worked on a very small scale, raising only a few seedlings every year in the backyard of his home... Using Polyantha roses such as 'Ellen Poulsen', de Vink produced 'Pixie', 'Midget' and then the nursery-rhyme roses, including 'Bo Peep', 'Baby Bunting' and the still wonderful 'Cinderella', which he bred from 'Tom Thumb'... de Vink stopped breeding roses in the early 1970s...

[From The Rose: An Encyclopedia of North American Roses, Rosarians, and Rose Lore, by Sean McCann, pp. 50-1:] Jan de Vink is credited with bringing the miniature rose into the world as a result of his backyard hybridizing... He might have gone unknown but for the foresight of Robert Pyle, of the Conard-Pyle Company... On a visit to the Netherlands, Pyle saw a little plant of de Vink's that bore a red rose with a white center. De Vink called the rose 'Peon'. The moment he saw it, Pyle realized its potential... Pyle took a patent on the rose, renamed it 'Tom Thumb', and introduced it to the public in 1936... [See source for more information]

[From Roses: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia & Grower's Handbook, by Peter Peales, p. 55:] the distinction of breeding the first popular hybrid Miniature goes to the Dutchman de Vink. He crossed 'Rouletii' with the Dwarf Polyantha 'Gloria Mundi' to bring forth 'Peon', a small Miniature whose red flowers each have a white eye.