At the beginning it was a nursery garden for all types of plants created by Fleury Jean-Baptiste Gabriel Ruitton (1813-1893). With the help of his son François Ruitton (1838-1905) he developed the first Herbaceous Peonies plant cultivation. His son-in-law Benoît Rivière (1865-1913), increased this type of cultivation enormously by adding Tree Peonies.

In 1908, our catalog offered 360 varieties of Herbaceous Peonies and 240 varieties of Tree Peonies.. Benoît Rivière exposed his flowers at different shows in Bordeaux, Lyon or Paris and even went to London and Turin where he won different prizes. Benoît Rivière died in 1913 at 48 at the time his son Antoine was only 11. His wife Marie kept a part of the plant cultivation until 1925 when Antoine was old enough to manage the business.

Antoine Rivière, in spite of difficult periods until the 1940s, continued and enhanced the collection of peonies adding new plants up to his death in 1980.

His son Michel then took over the business and has been manager of the nursery for over 20 years. He decided to reduce the other activities of the nursery and put all his best efforts into the Peony collection.
The company expanded rapidly due to new cultivars and new plants coming from China, Japan, Switzerland and the United States.

In 1990, Peonies become the exclusive product of the nursery.
A new production site was set up to improve cultivation management.
At the foot of the Vercors, between the Dauphiné,and the Provence regions of France and a step away from the Rhône Valley, Jean-Luc Rivière, 6th generation, continues carrying out this fascinating research work, breeding, multiplying, growing and marketing peonies.