L'École Nationale Supérieure d'Horticulture (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Horticulture de Versailles, Ecole Nationale d'Horticulture) was a French grande école of horticulture. It was founded in 1874, on initiative of Pierre Joigneaux and the first Director was Auguste Hardy, to promote French agricultural education (Under the Act of 16 Dec. 1873). The school was located in the “Potager du Roi” (the King's kitchen garden) in Versailles where the former Institut National Agronomique had been established in October 1848 at the end of the Second Republic. At first it was named Ecole Nationale d'Horticulture, being changed to Ecole Nationale Supérieur d'Horticulture (ENSH) in 1961. In 1976, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Paysage (ENSP) was separated from the ENSH, and both remain located at the Potager du Roi. In 1995, the ENSH was transferred to Angers, while the ENSP remained at Versailles. Three year later, the ENSH was officially combined with the national school of practitioners of horticulture and landscape (Ecole National des Ingénieurs de l'Horticulture et du Paysage ENITHP) in Angers to produce the Institut National d'Horticulture et de Paysage (National Institute for Horticulture and Landscape Management). History In October 1848 France's agricultural education was reformed through the creation of the Institut National Agronomique at Versailles specialising in the vegetable garden. In 1849, Auguste Hardy, agronomist, became Head Gardener of the institute, replacing Mr Massey in the garden and beginning student education. At the end of the Republic, the institute is abandoned because the Emperor, like his royal predecessors, preferred the garden as a simple source of provisions. However, in 1865 Hardy created a school dedicated to the development of new fruit varieties using improved techniques, more greenhouses and sheltered areas. After 1866 many organisations vied for control of the school until in 1872 Pierre Joigneaux proposed l'École Nationale d'Horticulture (ENH), which was opened in 1874. It was to be self-financing from the sale of the products of the garden maintained by fifty "student-workers". Its mission was: "the training of expert gardeners who are able, after two years of theoretical and practical studies, to spread and popularize good horticultural practices and principles in our departments." The garden was considered ideally situated: "considering all the horticultural wealth gathered at Versailles, nowhere could provide a training more complete and more varied." The school then continued its tradition of production and experimentation. A weather station was installed, and different research programmes were implemented on cultivation, preservation