The late 18th century was a time of great excitement: the discovery and introduction of new plant species from plant hunting expeditions to the Orient and the opening up of trade with the East, with the giant clippers of the British East India Company plying their way across the seas back home with cases of tea imports; fancy furniture, cane and lacquer ware from China and Japan and exotic plants and roses like Rosa chinensis (though it used to be called Rosa indica, meaning ‘of China’) in the newly-developed Wardian cases. Native to the Guizhou, Hubei and Sichuan Provinces of China, Rosa chinensis has been cultivated in China since 3000 BC, its blooms depicted in early Chinese paintings of the 10th century. Chinese garden roses display considerable hybridity from this long period of cultivation.
The introduction of China roses in the 1790s changed the Western rose world forever, as they were so different to the Old European roses. Not only were they a different shape with a lighter airy growth and sparser foliage, but their blooms had a different scent and colour and flowered continuously, and their introduction opened up a whole new set of genes to be used in rose breeding, resulting in an explosion in the number of different rose varieties: Portands, Bourbons, Noisettes, Hybrid Perpetuals, Tea Roses and eventually the modern Hybrid Tea roses. Little wonder that European gardeners were so entranced and captivated by these new roses! The photo below is Cécile Brünner, one of my favourite China roses!
The early Chinas or the four Stud Chinas, as they became known, were:
Old Blush China , also known as the Monthly Rose or Parsons’ Pink and Pallida (after its parents). It was brought to Europe in 1751, but introduced to Britain by Sir Joseph Banks in 1789, after bringing it back from Canton, China (photo below);
Slater’s Crimson China, also known as the Bengal Rose, introduced in 1792;
Hume’s Blush Teascented China 1809; and
Park’s Yellow Teascented China 1824
See : http://www.vicstaterosegarden.com.au/about-our-roses/rose-stories for more on their arrival.
Unfortunately, these roses are not cold-hardy, so while they thrived in the warmer parts of Europe, like France and Italy, they remained small (60 to 90 cm in height, compared to over 1.8 metres in warmer areas) or had to be grown in greenhouses and conservatories in colder areas. 
Description :
Twiggy irregular bushes, 1 to 2 metres tall with a light branching habit, purple-brown stems and few thorns;
Glossy, smooth, pointed, pinnate foliage, which has red tints when young; The leaves have 3 to 5 leaflets, 2.5 to 6 cm long and 1 to 3 cm wide.
Continuous flowering of dainty blooms with distinct bright colours: deep reds; maroon; pink; white, as well as warm yellow; saffron; salmon and orange. The colour intensifies with age, rather than fading to pale like the Old European roses. The hips are red and 1 to 2 cm long. The rose photographed below is Perle d’Or.
Cultivation :
China roses will do best with fertile, well-manured soil and a sheltered warm north-facing (Southern Hemisphere) position, protected from the wind. They dislike hard pruning, so only remove dead and dying growth. The rose below is Old Blush.
Species:
Rosa chinensis var. spontanea
The wild form of the rose, it was first seen by Dr Augustine Henry in 1884 and described by him in The Gardener’s Chronicle in 1902. It was found again in 1983 by Mr Mikinori Ogisu, of Tokyo, in the Chinese Province of Sichuan and was photographed in the Royal National Rose Society’s Journal, The Rose, accompanied by an article by Graham Thomas in September 1986.
Growing into trees up to 3 metres tall, it bears blooms 5 to 6 cm wide, which vary in colour from pink to crimson (the colour being darker in areas of higher altitude).
Old Blush or Parson’s Pink 1781 Parsons’ Pink China x R. odorata ‘Pallida’
Still quite common, Old Blush is a dainty, upright, robust, almost thornless shrub or short climber with dainty, small, loosely informal, pale silvery-pink (deepening with age), continuous flowers in small clusters. The strong scent has been described as being similar to a sweet pea. It was brought to Sweden in 1752 by Peter Osbeck, was growing in Holland in 1781 and introduced in England in 1789. It was found growing in a garden at Rickmansworth, in the garden of Mr Parsons in 1793. Often the first rose to start flowering in Spring and the last to finish in Winter, it produces flowers continuously through the Summer, hence its other name: the Monthly Rose. While usually growing to 1.2 metres, it can be considerably taller (up to 3 metres against a warm wall) in favourable conditions.
Slater’s Crimson China, also called the Bengal Rose, Semperflorens and Old Crimson China
Also known as the Bengal Rose, because it arrived in tea clippers from Calcutta, India, in 1792. Seldom seen today, this rose was important , as it introduced rich pure reds into a gene pool, where the crimsons invariably turned to purples and mauves. Its flowers are truly single, 9 cm across, blood red, fading to crimson, and have a slight tea fragrance. A small rounded bush 1 to 1.2 metres tall in Britain, it will grow to twice the height in hotter climates. It needs a warm sheltered position to do well and prefers warmer climates, where it will flower 12 months of the year.
Hume’s Blush Teascented China R. indica odorata
Discovered by John Reeves in 1808, but named after rosarian, Abraham Hume, this rose was sent from the Fa Tee Nursery in Canton in 1810. The fully double blooms are a creamy flesh pink, fading to creamy white, with a pink reverse and a strong tea fragrance and are borne continuously from Spring to Autumn. The original hybrid introduced to the West may very well be extinct, as it disappeared from commerce in the 19th century.
Park’s Yellow Teascented China R. indica ochroleuca, now assigned Rosa odorata var. pseudindica
Named after plant collector, John Damper Parks, who discovered this cloudy sulphur-yellow, scented rose in 1824 on a Royal Horticultural Society expedition to China, it is thought to be the result of a cross between R. chinensis and R. gigantea, from which it inherited its larger, thicker and more waxy petals. The yellow tea roses of the early 20th century were the result of crossing this rose with Fortune’s Double Yellow, a Tea Rose with yellow, buff and red blooms, found by Robert Fortune on the wall of Chinese mandarin’s garden in Ningpo, Northern China, 1845, while a cross of Parks Yellow Tea-scented China with Noisettes produced the Tea- Noisettes. It is likely that the original was lost over 100 years ago. According to Mr. George Gordon (1806-1879), Superintendent of the Gardens of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick near London, ‘Rosa indica ochroleuca‘ was extinct before 1842. The Tea-scented Yellow China, which was widely distributed, was ‘Rosa indica flavescens‘, a seedling of Hume’s Blush. The pale sulfur yellow original was a small shrub, that rebloomed, set hips, and had only a moderate Tea scent. The rose presently in commerce under this name is creamy white, once-blooming, strongly Tea-scented and does not set hips. Here is a photo from the Victorian State Rose Garden at Werribee Park, Victoria:
Now for a discussion of the modern day China roses available.
Cécile Brünner Sweetheart Rose/ Mignon and the Maltese Rose
A delightful little rose, bred by Pernet-Ducher, France, 1881, it is a cross between a Polyantha rose and Tea rose, Mme de Tartas. It is often confused with the taller Bloomfield Abundance, but the buds on the latter have long sepals, an identifying feature.
Cécile Brünner is only short (120 cm tall and 60 cm wide) with spindly, thornless, compact growth; sparse, semi-glossy, dark-green foliage; and perfectly scrolled, delicate soft pink blooms in clusters in Summer. The blooms are popular with florists for use in corsages and buttonholes.
There is a white form, as well as a climbing sport, Climbing Cécile Brünner, which is much more vigorous, reaching 7.5 metres tall and 6 metres wide, growing into trees and scrambling over arches. It is tolerant of most soils and is well-endowed with dense, dark-green foliage, which often hides the tiny shell-pink flowers. The photo below is our Climbing Cécile Brünner over the arch leading to our old guest cottage in Armidale. We have planted another specimen in our new garden at Candelo over the entrance arch on the lane, leading to our front door, and already it has covered one side of the arch totally.
Bloomfield Abundance (Spray Cécile Brünner in the USA)
A cross between Sylvia and Dorothy Page Roberts, bred by Thomas, USA in 1920 and one of the largest bush Chinas at 1.8 metres tall and 1.2 metres wide. Smooth purplish-brown, often spindly wood; dark-green smooth foliage and large well-spaced clusters of tiny compact shell-pink flowers on long stems. Long sepals extending beyond the petals, while those of Cécile Brünner are shorter and fold back to the receptacle.
Perle d’Or (Yellow Cécile Brünner ) Dubreuil, France, 1884
A cross between a Multiflora seedling and Mme Falcot, it can grow over 1.8 metres, but is usually more like 1.2 metres tall. Very similar to Cécile Brünner, it has dense growth, twiggy, almost thornless stems, ample rich dark green foliage and clusters of spaced small orange-buff yellow, turning a softer peachy pink, flowers with a slight fruity fragrance.
Hermosa (Armosa)
A hybrid between a China Rose and another unknown parent, bred by Marcheseau, France in 1840. The growth is branching and more sturdy than most Chinas with numerous, small, grey-green leaves and it bears small, mid-pink, slightly fragrant globular cupped flowers continuously through Summer. The blooms have a Bourbon-like appearance, though are smaller and more delicate.
Mutabilis (Tipo Ideale)
I love this rose, whose beautiful light single papery, loose blooms of variable colours remind me of a host of butterflies.
Copper-yellow pointed buds open to single copper-yellow flowers, which turn to pink then crimson with age.
A dense twiggy plant, with plum-red shoots and glossy dark green leaves (juvenile leaves are bronze), British descriptions of this rose claim its measurements as 90 cm tall by 60 cm wide, though David Austin has seen 2.5 metre high shrubs against a warm sheltered wall. It performs very well in the warmer climate of Australia, reaching over 3 metres in Walter Duncan’s Heritage Garden in Clare, South Australia. La Landriana, a garden created by Marchesa Lavinia Taverna at Ardea, near Rome, has over 300 specimens of this beautiful rose, covering two acres. See: https://www.romecentral.com/en/luoghi-segreti-vicino-roma-giardini-della-landriana/. What a sight to behold this valley in full bloom!!! Given to Henri Correvon of Geneva by Prince Ghilberto Borromeo of Isola Bella, Italy, in 1896, there is little known about the origins of this rose.
Viridiflora R. viridiflora
Introduced in 1855, this small rose is a sport from Old Blush China, to which it is very similar in growth. A very unusual rose, the petals have been replaced by numerous green sepals, hence its other name, the Green Rose. The bracts also have rust-red tinges, which turn purplish-brown with age, and it’s a very interesting rose to use in floral arrangements.
Use of China Roses
In Chinese medicine, all parts of the rose are used. The leaves and roots are used to treat arthritis, boils and coughs, while the hips are applied to sprains, ulcers and wounds. The flower buds are used to treat dysmenorrhoea, poor circulation, swelling and stomach pains. The other interesting fact, which I discovered in my research, is that China roses can be used as a natural acid-base indicator. The rose petals are soaked in hot water for half an hour until the water turns pink. When added to acids, the colour turns a magenta red, while mixing it with a base will turn the colour to a yellowish-green or green. See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SggBRVQ0gtg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDiU5-CKbY4.
Next month, we will discuss some of the different types of new roses available to the Victorians after the introduction of the Chinas: the Boursaults, Portlands, Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals.
While we were there in early Summer and we also have seen my daughter’s photographs of Giverny in Spring with the tulips in full bloom, it is wonderful to be able to see photographs of the garden in other seasons as well. The photos in this book are absolutely stunning and well do justice to Monet’s vision! Here is our photo of the Summer roses in full bloom in 1994:
Incidentally, Vivian Russell also directed Peter Beales’ romantic video ‘A Celebration of Old Roses’, which I discussed in my post on Favourite Rose Books (
The book chronicles the whole restoration project from the rediscovery of the gardens in 1990 to the restoration of the Italian Garden (1991) and the Northern Summerhouse (1992) and the opening of the garden in Easter 1992. Here are some of our 1994 photos:
This was followed by the redevelopment of the Ravine (old Alpine Garden); Flora’s Green, containing many hybrid rhododendrons of the Hooker collection; the New Zealand garden (1st photo above); the crystal-lined Grotto; the Jungle and its lake (2nd and 3rd photo above); the Walled Vegetable Garden with its straw bee skeps in hollows in the wall (1st photo below) and heated greenhouses (2nd and 3rd photos); and the Melon Garden, all by our visit in 1994.
Since then, the Flower Garden and Sundial garden have come into their own and the Lost Valley and its Water Meadow have been restored. I can see we will have to pay a second visit, but in the mean time, we can watch one of the many videos about this highly popular garden in Britain!
Virginia Woolf’s Garden: The Story of the Garden at Monk’s House by Caroline Zoob 2013
Here is a link to the garden pages of the Charleston official website: 
Soho roses are field grown roses, which are grown naturally out in the paddock and involve slower growth, more maintenance and labour, and increased susceptibility to the vagaries of inclement weather like rain, drought and high temperatures. For example, the ideal temperature for roses is 28 degrees Celsius, but 4 days of temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius resulted in having to throw away 150 000 deadheaded blooms one Summer!
The roses, sourced from Treloars Nursery in Portland (
Fair Bianca (above) is a particular favourite for weddings with its pink tipped buds and cream blooms, opening flat, though the scent tend to go off after a day or two! For more on the particular roses grown, please consult: 
Soho Rose Farm started 12 years ago (July 2005) in a different location and after farming three different blocks, it moved to its current site in Drysdale six years ago due to the current block’s continuity of water. The average rainfall in Drysdale is 400 mm and extra water is sourced from a 30,000 gallon water tank, as well as town supplies.
When we were working there from 2010 to 2012, Clare and Wally also leased a paddock over at St Leonards, next to a large dam, with a spectacular view of Queenscliff and Corio Bay.
I used to love working over there, even though the toilet facilities were non-existent, as the view was spectacular. We would often watch honking swans or pelicans fly low overhead, as they came into land on the dam.
There were also flocks of sheep and alpacas grazing in the paddocks next to the rose field and the odd rabbit, as well as lots of bird song, fresh air and sunshine!
However, in the end, it was too difficult splitting their time between the two sites and the owners decided to focus intensively on the home paddock at Drysdale instead.
We were given the option of digging up as many roses as we wanted from the St Leonards patch, the source of the 12 roses in our Soho bed, hence the name! The first two photos below are the start of the garden in September and October 2015 and the 3rd photo is from November 2016. Such a difference in just one year!
At Drysdale, over 8000 plants are grown on 1 hectare with well-drained loamy topsoil, ideal for growing roses. The roses are planted 1 m apart to allow for good air circulation and space to thrive, as shown in this photo from the St. Leonards rose patch.
The soil is tested three times per year to determine fertilizer requirements, with a liquid brew, fed to the plants through a fertigation drip irrigation system. Fertilizer is applied three times a year in February, September and late November to early December after the first growth spurt.
Roses are pruned lightly or deadheaded throughout the growing season, according to the rose type, to encourage more blooms, and then in Winter (after the July school holidays or when the leaves start to drop for 6 weeks), they are pruned back hard. Each rose type is pruned differently, with Hybrid Teas being pruned more heavily than David Austin roses. The roses are then mulched with pea straw and manure before the new shoots start to emerge, in order to control the weeds, save water and replenish the plants for their growth over the next Summer. Winter is also the time for planting new roses.
Roses are picked by hand five days a week from 6.30 am till mid-morning. Each variety needs to be picked at a different stage, so that it’s not too open, nor too closed, by the time it arrives at the florist’s shop. They immediately go into buckets of water on the trailer and are then brought up to the air-conditioned shed for conditioning. There are usually about 10 staff, many migrants and refugees from Thailand and Burma, who were learning English at the local TAFE, as well as some locals like Pam and Meamatua (hope the spelling is correct!), floristry students like myself and Berna, other students like the gorgeous Genevieve, who was training to become a primary school teacher, and an assorted dog population, including Clare and Wally’s staffy pup, Sid, born in 2012; Pam’s border collie Scarlett and visiting dogs Otto and Maple Syrup!
But back to work! Over 6 000 stems are picked a week with up to 12 000 stems in the peak season from November to March. Picking starts in late October and extends through till the next May. Rose stems are stripped by hand to remove the lower leaves, sorted into bunches of 50 stems, cut diagonally on the stem ends and placed in buckets of water to be stored in the cool room.
Roses were arranged in buckets according to the rose orders on the blackboard and the urgency of the job.
While some florists wanted only one type of rose in the bucket like the wedding rose, Fair Bianca, others wanted one colour only like pink, so we would mix David Austins and Hybrid Teas in a range of pinks like The Childrens’ Rose and Heaven Scent (both Hybrid Teas) with David Austin roses, Eglantyne or The Claire Rose.
Others wanted mixed soft pastel shades, elegant antique creamy pink and coffee shades (Spirit of Peace and Julia’s Rose) or dramatic bold mixes of red and purple; red and orange; or my favourite Moroccan Mix with oranges, reds, golds and purples!
There was such a wonderful array of colour and form on the cool room shelves and the scent was divine!
A fully packed coolroom is a wonderful sight to behold, as was the floor of the shed at the end of the day!
Any leftover blooms are donated to the local nursing home or divided amongst the staff, the latter the best perk of the job. I would arrive home from a long tiring day at the rose farm, only to be transported into another dreamy relaxing world, as I arranged vases of beautiful blooms- a sure sign of being in the right job!!!
In the afternoon, the flower buckets are loaded into the air-conditioned van for transport to the Avalon Airport, where the blooms were then collected by Dakota Flowers (
Soho Roses are loved by the Melbourne florists and have graced many a famous wedding or event. They have been used in bouquets, on wedding cakes, in vases and table arrangements and in photo shoots. High profile weddings have included:
Special events have included:
Now that you know all about wholesale rose growing at Soho Rose Farm, it is time to discuss:
Roses should be cut in the bud stage, just as their outer petals are starting to uncurl. At Soho, Clare and Wally would cut the stems early in the morning before the sun hit and immediately place them in buckets of water on the trailer. When the roses arrived up at the air-conditioned shed, we would strip the lower leaves with gloved hands, then recut 2 cm off the bottom of the stems on a diagonal and place 50 stems in a bucket of water, according to the order- Mixed Pastel/ Moroccan/ Red and Purple/ Fair Bianca/ Spirit of Peace and Julia’s Rose (photo below) etc., and place them in the cool room.
The vase life of roses is up to 14 days, but it is very dependent on the correct treatment of the blooms at every stage. Roses are sensitive to ethylene, some varieties more than others, especially the dark reds. Signs of ethylene damage are blackened petal edges and failure of the buds to open. The roses at the back of the vase in the photo below should be removed!
The stems ends should never be left out of water, as an embolism (air bubble) will form in the bottom of the stem and prevent the uptake of water. When buying blooms, roses should always be sold with a water source.
Here are some pointers to buying roses:
Arranging Roses: 
Cut 2 to 3 cm off the stem ends, preferably underwater to prevent an air embolism. Cut stem ends on the diagonal for maximum exposure to the water. Immediately place in a vase of water. Cool water will prevent early opening and blowing the blooms. Warm water can hasten bud opening in cooler weather, but use carefully, as the buds can open fully very quickly!
Flower preservative is essential (or 1 tsp sugar and a few drops of bleach) to help the buds to open, maintain open blooms and extend the life of the flowers.
Top up the water daily. Change the water and replace the preservative every second day. Recut stem ends whenever the rose is out of water. Remove dying blooms and fallen petals, as they will release ethylene and decrease the vase life.
Clean the vases after each use with bleach to prevent bacterial contamination.
Treatment of Wilted Dropping Blooms, caused by an air embolism:
Sand Drying
Dried flowers can be used in dried bouquets, corsages, wreaths and garlands, flower balls, potpourri and even round mirrors and the base of candlesticks. Potpourri was used extensively to sweeten the air in days when personal hygiene and garbage collection did not exist. Rose petals are dried separately on absorbent paper till completely dry, then mixed with other dried petals and leaves of scented,colourful flowers like Dianthus; Delphinium; Calendula; Scented Geraniums and herbs (lemon verbena; borage; lemon balm; chamomile; lavender and mint), as well as spices (cinnamon or allspice); essential oils (rose) and a fixative like orris root. Here are two online recipes for rose potpourri:
R. x centifolia, also known as the 100-petalled Rose or the Cabbage Rose, was once thought to be a species, but DNA studies have revealed that it is a complex hybrid, whose genetic background includes genes of R. gallica; R. phoenicia; R. moschata; R. canina and R. damascena. It first appeared in the late 16th century and over 200 varieties (including the mosses) were bred in the period between 1600 and 1800, only 22 varieties of Centifolias now commonly available. 
They were much featured in Dutch and Flemish still-life paintings of the time (
It is also the rose featured in Victorian wallpapers, textiles, curtains, chintz sofas and tapestry bags. The first photo is a decorative paper, based on a textile printing pattern from the 1880s to the 1920s. 
Its commercial production in Morocco and France to produce rose oil for the perfumery industry, especially in the area around Grasse, has given it its final name, the Provence Rose. There is even a special annual Rose Festival for Centifolia roses in Grasse. See: 
Centifolias have produced a number of different variants or sports (mutations), including Moss Roses; dwarf Centifolias and striped and spotted varieties of Centifolias. In R. x centifolia muscosa, a mutation of the glands has produced a thick covering of green or reddish-brown , resinous hairs (moss) on the stems, buds and sepals. The moss covering is very sticky and balsam-scented. This unusual feature made them very popular with Victorian gardeners, who loved anything different or exotic. Victorian catalogues listed 30 to 40 varieties of Moss Roses. More later…
Centifolias are extremely hardy and require little pruning, except the removal of very old wood after flowering. They can be shortened by 1/3 growth in late Winter. They like full sun and plenty of space and air circulation to prevent mildew and black spot. There are some dwarf hybrids, which are more dense and upright, with smaller leaves and flowers.
Fantin Latour: Named after the French artist and well known rose painter, Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), this rose has an unknown lineage. It is a well-formed shrub, 1.5 metres tall and 1.2 metres wide, with almost smooth, arching canes and smoother, rounder, dark green leaves. It grows well in a bed or border and has a relatively short blooming period in late Spring. On either side of the entrance arch to our harp-shaped herb garden in Armidale, we grew two specimens, from which we took cuttings for our new Candelo garden, where it is growing on the shed fence next to Bourbon rose, Mme Isaac Pereire.
It produces large clusters of very double, cupped, delicately-fragrant, pale blush pink blooms, 5 to 7.6 cm wide, which flatten out with a swirl of petals and a button eye. It is very hardy with moderate disease-resistance.
Sports of the Centifolia roses include :
Mme Louis Lévêque is a small upright shrub 1.2 metres tall and 90 cm wide, with long, pointed, bright green leaves and bright pink mossy buds, which open to 10 cm large, soft warm pink, full cupped, silky flowers, which fade to a lighter pink. There is some repeat flowering later in the season. Unfortunately, the buds ball (do not open) in wet weather.
Identical to R. centifolia, except for the mossy growth on the sepals, it is a tidy medium shrub 1.5 metres tall and 1.2 metres wide, which blooms only once in Summer, but over an extended period, lasting several weeks. The heavily mossed, feathery looking buds have extended calyces, giving them the appearance of Napoléon’s cocked tricorn hat, hence its name.
The buds open to fully double deep silvery pink, highly fragrant cabbage like blooms. It is moderately vigorous and disease-resistant, but may require some support.
With the introduction of China Roses from the East to Europe, rose breeding started in earnest and there was literally an explosion in the number of different rose varieties available to the Victorian gardener. Next month, we will look at China Roses in detail and the reason they caused such excitement and made such an impact in the Western world.
They don’t like too much shade nor overhanging trees, because of the shade the latter cast and the root competition. The rose hedges behind our vegetable beds have struggled, especially in front of the mulberry tree, which sends suckers out left, right and centre (see bottom photo)!
Roses prefer northerly and easterly aspects in the Southern Hemisphere (southerly and westerly aspects in the Northern Hemisphere). Our garden faces east.
Good drainage. So, heavy clay soils need to be built up with humus and animal manure to improve drainage and if these soils get water-logged in Winter, the beds can be raised to allow drainage at the root level.
Planting
Dig a hole at least 30 cm deep and 50 cm wide. It should be large enough to take all the roots, which should be pointed downwards and outwards. For bush roses, Treloars states that the graft or bud union should be 2.5 cm above the soil level (see first photo scanned from their catalogue, along with a diagram for planting a standard rose), though Peter Beales and Sally Allison both suggest burying the union 2 cm below the surface to anchor the plant, especially in windy areas, protect against frost damage and reduce suckering.
Below are photos of the newly planted Soho Bed.
Plant over a small mound in the centre of the hole. In the photo below, Ross is digging holes for the David Austin roses, before he dug the whole Moon Bed.
Firm soil around the roots, ensuring there are no air pockets, and fill the rest of the hole to ground level without compaction. Here, Ross is planting our roses, which struck from cuttings from our old Armidale garden. They should grow well on their own roots.
You can add well-rotted manure or a slow release fertilizer in the hole when planting, otherwise all other fertilizers are better applied to the surface soil 6 weeks after planting.
We collect old cow manure from a friend’s dairy farm. The Grey Fantail loves it, as do the roses, as seen by the photos below. Pelletized or fresh manure should be totally avoided at planting time, as it will burn the new roots. Burnt soil and ash from a bonfire can be spread on the soil surface to provide valuable potash. Water in well.
Every soil benefit from top dressing with a 3 to 5 cm layer of mulch to suppress weeds, retain moisture and nutrients and maintain the average soil temperature. Keep mulch at least 2 to 3 cm away from the stem to avoid collar rot. We used sugar cane mulch on the Soho Bed and when we ran out on the Moon Bed, topped it up with our old bamboo mulch.
Pine needles or eucalypt leaves should be avoided, but here are some better suggestions:
General Maintenance
Remove any root stock suckers:
During Flowering:
Knights Roses suggests fertilizing in late February; September and December, while Ross Roses suggests a fertilizing regime in February and November. Dead-head blooms to encourage more blooms and keep the shrub tidy, unless you want the decorative hips, like Rugosas (photos below) or the once-flowering Species roses.
Pests and Diseases
Sure, I get the odd black spot, but these days, I don’t worry too much as it’s not a major problem. I used to pick all the diseased foliage off and any dead leaves off the ground, but it’s a huge job and not worth defoliating your entire plant – after all, it’s the flowers you are interested in! Having said that, if I lived in a wetter climate and had more of a problem, I would definitely be addressing it! Here is a photo of black spot-infested leaves:
But if you keep your plants healthy with plenty of nutrition, and especially if you grow old roses rather than the more modern hybrid teas, they should stand a fighting chance against any pests and diseases. Remember, do not replant a new rose in the same position as one which has died! My rose plants developed a small amount of black spot over the hot Summer months, but all the new growth is super-healthy with not a trace! The second photo is an enlargement of the first photo, showing the healthy new growth above the lower infected leaves, as can also be seen in the 3rd photo. Certainly not a major problem!
Birds are also very important in insect control, so encourage the Silvereyes; Eastern Spinebills; Blue Fairy Wrens; Blackbirds; Grey Thrush; and Magpies.
Pruning
After Pruning 
That’s the basics! Now enjoy browsing those rose catalogues and choosing your new roses!!!
Natural Companions: The Garden Lover’s Guide to Plant Combinations by Ken Druse and Ellen Hoverkamp 2012
The Language of Flowers: a Novel by Vanessa Diffenbaugh 2011
Seasons at Home: Food, Family, Friends and Style by Holly Kerr Forsyth 2011
A Photographic Garden History by Roger Phillips and Nicky Foy 1995
Great Gardens of Britain by Helena Attlee 2011
Situated in the Coromandel Valley, in the part-rural hills suburb of Blackwood, 16 km from the Adelaide CBD, Gamble Cottage was built in 1902 for Joseph Gamble, an orchardist who worked at the Government Experimental Orchard (which was set up in the late 1800s to trial fruit trees, which might be suitable for South Australian conditions), and his wife Harriet Victoria Gamble (nee Knight). They married in 1890 and had four daughters, two of whom married and moved away (Dorothy and Isabel) and two, Clara and Edith, who never married and lived there most of their life. They grew many old cottage garden favourites, from cuttings and seeds, which they swapped with neighbours and friends. Harriet died in 1940 (aged 74 years) and Joseph in 1945 (aged 78 years). The Gamble sisters well outlived their parents, Edith dying in 1990 (aged 82) and Clara attaining the ripe old age of 104 years, before dying in 1994. As they became increasingly frail and unable to maintain the garden, the sisters bequeathed the cottage and garden to the City of Mitcham in 1982 for use by the local community. The cottage is now maintained by the Coromandel Valley and Districts Branch of the National Trust South Australia, while the garden is cared for by the Friends of Gamble Cottage, an active volunteer group, which holds working bees each week from 9am to 11am each Tuesday morning and bimonthly meetings on the second Tuesday, held at the cottage at 11am, from February on.
The sandstone cottage has three main rooms and a hallway, with a timber-framed add-on kitchen and bathroom, which is now used to store the archives of the Coromandel Valley and Districts Branch for local history research. It is also part museum, the cottage being furnished in an early 1900s style, and is available for hire to the public for exhibitions and displays; meetings and parties; and small wedding groups of up to 30 guests.
The Edwardian cottage garden is a rare surviving example of a true working class cottage garden, based on small formal garden beds, planted with old-fashioned roses; hardy shrubs; bulbs; perennials and annuals.
It was faithfully restored in 1986 as a South Australian Jubilee 150 project with advice from both Clara and Edith.
The original flower beds and a small pine forest to the south side of the garden still exist.
There are a large number of Alister Clark roses planted, including Borderer; Daydream; Diana Allen; Fairlie Rede; Lady Huntingfield; Sunlit ; Squatter’s Dream; Sunny South; Marjorie Palmer; Ringlet; and Lorraine Lee (see below for both climbing and bush forms).
Other old roses include: Monsieur Tillier (photo 1); Perle d’Or (photo 2) and Perfect, an early Hybrid Tea, bred by Sam McGredy III (1893-1934) in 1932 (photos 3 and 4). His father Sam McGredy II (1878-1926) bred Tea rose Mrs Herbert Stevens in 1910.
In 2016, the formal garden beds at the front and to the east of the cottage were planted up with blue, yellow, pink and orange nemesias, daisies, red and white abutilon, cosmos, mini agapanthus, violets, multihued osteospermums, alyssium, lobelias, convolvulus, geraniums, aquilegas and heucheras.
Garden plants also include alyssum, salvias, penstemon, pelagoniums, nepeta, campanula, California poppy, cistus and Japanese anemones and roses. It is worth consulting: 
Many of the shrubs have yellow/ green or silver/ green foliage and have yellow, orange or purple flowers, like Crepe Myrtle; Port Wine Magnolia; Ginger Lily and Duranta repens.
There is a Viburnum hedge along the fence and a lovely old Irish Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo, in the front garden on the left of the photo below.
The garden has been expanded into the side and rear gardens, where less formal plantings of shrubs, trees and hardy perennials have been favoured and at the back of the property is an orchard of heritage fruit and nut trees.
Here are some more photos of roses in the garden.
More photos of this beautiful garden can be seen at: 
Part of the Westgarthtown Historic Precinct, a historic dairy farming settlement 16 km north of Melbourne, established by German and Wendish immigrants in the 1850s and now engulfed by residential suburb of Thomastown and Lalor in the City of Whittlesea. During the 19th century, five million people left Germany, with over 5000 immigrants arriving in Australia between 1838 and 1850, under a migration scheme initiated by Melbourne merchant, William Westgarth, because he had been so impressed by ‘the industry, frugality, sobriety and general good conduct’ of the German settlers in South Australia. The Wends hail from Lusatia, which was divided up into three German provinces.
Christian and Sophia Ziebell emigrated to Australia in 1850 and built a large L-shaped stone farmhouse on their 102 acre farm, named ‘The Pines’ for their family of 9 children between 1851 and 1856. In 1885, Christian returned to Germany for a visit and returned with seeds, plants, cuttings, trees, tools and household furniture. They had a huge vegetable garden and orchard, which kept them all in fruit and vegetables. They made all their own cheese, butter, soap and preserved meat. Produce was preserved – vegetables pickled and salted and the fruit bottled or made into jams and jellies, and any surplus was transported by horse and cart to be sold at the Victoria Markets in Melbourne, along with the regular sales of butter, cream, eggs and smoked meat. Note that there was no electricity, refrigeration, gas, mains water or sewerage at that time. Originally, herbs and small vegetables were grown with the flowers, but as the vegetable and herb gardens and orchard expanded, the flower garden took over the areas adjacent to the house.
The house passed through 5 generations of the Ziebell family from Christian and Sophie to son August and his wife Auguste, to their son Carl (who died in 1940) and his wife Dorothea, who lived on in the farmhouse till her death in 1969, aged 96 years. Carl and Dorothea had 10 children and when Carl died, 3 unmarried daughters were still living with Dorothea. A fourth widowed daughter, Sylvia Adams, joined them with four young children in 1932, her daughter Sylvia only 6 years old. Dorothea and Carl passed on their love of gardening to all their children, who each developed their own productive flower and vegetable gardens and orchards from slips, cuttings, seeds and seedlings from the original farmhouse garden, a fact which enabled the replacement of many of the plants lost over the years. During the 1950s, fuchsias replaced the grapevines on the verandahs and two tree ferns replaced an old loquat tree.The original orchard and vegetable gardens were sold and converted to housing in the 1970s. Sylvia Adams died in 1990, aged 90, and the property was sold to the City of Whittlesea in 1993.
The Westgarthtown Historic Precinct includes: Ziebell’s Farmhouse and Garden, including a bath house, smoke house, cart shed and stone barn (the other outbuildings, including the dairy, cowshed, stables and grain store were across Gardenia Rd); the adjacent Lutheran Reserve including the Thomastown Lutheran Church 1856, the oldest operating Lutheran church in Australia; the Lutheran Cemetery 1850; drystone walls; and four more original bluestone farmhouses owned and built by early German pioneers: Wuchatsch’s Farmhouse 1850s; Matzahn’s Farmhouse 1850 – 1860; Siebel’s Farmhouse 1860; and Graff’s Farmhouse 1873. See: 
The hipped roof of the farmhouse, whose steep pitch allowed for a spacious upper level attic, was originally made of wooden shingles, cut from local Drooping Sheoak, Yellow Box, Acacia and Black Wattle. The barn has a hipped roof of iron shingles. Walls on the eastern and southern sides of the courtyard were rendered with lime mortar. The farmhouse is surrounded by an L-shaped verandah, which affords protection from the northerly and westerly winds. There are external doorways from the main bedroom, kitchen and entry hall onto the verandahs and all windows (except the northern side of the house) have wonderful views out onto the garden.
The cottage and garden are owned and maintained by the City of Whittlesea and are both on Victoria’s Heritage Register. See: 
The 1200 square metre garden has large informal gardens of flowers, roses, shrubs, fruit trees and a vegetable patch and a semi-formal circular flower garden in the centre. It has been managed by the Friends of Westgarthtown, including many descendants of the Ziebel family, since 1995. Gillian Borrack, the garden coordinator, has documented the garden extensively, including a comprehensive conservation analysis and management plan to preserve its authenticity. She also coordinates the combined volunteer and council support of the garden. For a detailed list of plants in each garden bed, see her article on: 
When the property was bought by the council in the 1990s, the gardens were quite rundown and neglected and the Friends of Westgarthtown restored the garden with the experience, knowledge and guidance of 5th generation family member, Sylvia Schultz, until her death in 2014.
The timber picket fence and some of the arbours were restored and a modern watering system installed, the garden previously maintained using recycled dish and bath water and water drawn by hand pump from a deep, stone-lined well, and later stored in rainwater tanks. There were new plantings of the original varieties of apricots, plums, peaches, pears, lemons, cherries and apples, as well as a mulberry and an elderberry tree, and lost plants were replaced with cutting and seeds donated by family members.
The garden contains a 130 year old Cécile Brünner rose and over 60 rose varieties, including many rare and historic varieties, a large number imported by the family in the 1800s. There are over 400 plants, including a rare Queen of Sheba climber.
The L-shaped verandah shelters the enclosed flower garden from the strong hot northerly winds and sun and contains many rare, scented and delicate treasures.
The garden is basically square in design with a central circular garden bed and four paths on the main axis leading back to the verandah or paths, except for the southern axis, which finishes under the wisteria pergola.
The central circular bed contains a central Queen Elizabeth rose, with cactus dahlias; mixed aquilegia; pink and white nerines; lupins; larkspur; lobelia; love-in-the-mist; primula; kiss-me-quick; Chinese forget-me-knots; petunias; violets and violas; daffodils and Dutch iris.
There are 10 further gardens with so many more plants, too numerous to mention here, suffice to say that it is probably best to consult the last web site mentioned, so I will only mention some of the other roses planted: Christian Dior; Pascali; Doris Downs; a Yellow Banksia rose and many David Austin roses.
And finally, there is Heide and I know that I have already discussed the garden in quite some depth in a previous post- see:
Part of the Heide Museum of Modern Art 20 minutes from Melbourne CBD and home of art patrons, John and Sunday Reed , from 1934 until their deaths in 1981, the story of Heide is recounted on: 
The kitchen garden at Heide II was modelled on the English-style cottage garden tradition, with old-fashioned roses, herbaceous perennials and culinary herbs and vegetables. It was developed on the site of an old bull enclosure, an area with fertile alluvial soil down on the river flat, with none of the difficult clay or shale of Heide I. The garden was surrounded by a four foot high picket fence and a shingle-roofed potting shed was built nearby.
Because the site was often inundated with flood waters, the higher western half of the garden was devoted to vegetables, while the lower eastern half contained herbs, flowers and roses, which tolerated the odd wet feet. There was a central path between the two sections with a timber arbour, over which grew the striped old Bourbon rose, Variegata di Bologna (photo below), which was under-planted with lavenders, sage, pale blue rosemary and borage.
The western narrow parallel vegetable beds had perimeter paths and grew a wide variety of vegetables from asparagus, globe and Jerusalem artichokes, pumpkin and corn; broad beans, climbing beans and peas; and rhubarb, salsify and shallots; to a range of salad leaves and greens, including endive, French sorrel, land cress, mignonette, mâche, spinach and Swiss chard. She grew garlic for its decorative flower heads and seed pods, rather than its culinary properties.
The eastern section of the garden had a traditional square design with four sets of successively smaller beds, connected by one long diagonal path. Sunday loved her herbs, which she propagated from seeds, slips and cuttings and roots, swapped with friends or smuggled illicitly into the country from the 1930s on, but you will have to read Lesley and Kendrah’s book for more details!
They included commonly used herbs like sweet basil, sage, rosemary, marjoram, tarragon and chives to more unusual herbs like mandrake and hemlock. The edges of the paths were softened with many different varieties of thyme: Caraway, English, French, and Lemon and its variegated form ‘Magic Carpet’ and cultivars like Orange Peel; Silver Queen (Lemon Silver); Silver Posie; White; and Woolly. She grew three types of chamomile : English; Lawn and Ox-Eye and every type of mint she could find: Apple and Variegated Apple Mint; Woolly Mint; Curly Mint; Corn Mint; Capsicum Mint; Eau de Cologne Mint; Ginger Mint; Horse Mint or Wild Mint; Pennyroyal; Peppermint and Water Mint. Perennial herbs included agrimony, tansy and lemon verbena, while annual, seasonal and biennial herbs included parsley, cumin, coriander and chervil and the flowering herbs: borage, lavender and bergamot were grown for their decorative visual appeal.
Sunday inherited her love of roses from her childhood at Balholmen and Merthen. Not longer after she and John moved to Heide, they invited famous Australian rose breeder Alister Clark to identify the pre-existing roses on the property. In 1938, an early consignment of wild and heritage roses included: R. foetida; R. lutea punicea; R. persica; Fortune’s Double Yellow (1st photo); Gloire de Dijon; Aimée Vibert and Devoniensis (2nd photo).
During the 1960s and 1970s, further plantings included R. centifolia (photo 1); Chateau de Clos Vougeot (photo 2); and very early Hybrid Tea, La France; a later climbing Hybrid Tea Étoile de Hollande and Floribunda rose, Warrior.
Here is a copy of her June 1967 planting list, taken from ‘Sunday’s Garden : Growing Heide’ :
Sunday grew a plethora of old roses at Heide II, especially the kitchen garden of Heide II, where the rugosas provided huge red hips for rosehip tea and rosehip jelly, jam and syrup, while the highly-scented petals of Bourbon rose, Mme Isaac Pereire (2nd photo) were perfect for making potpourri.
Other roses in Heide II include: Charles Mallerin; Mme Sancy de Parabère; Frühlingsmorgen and Tea roses, Mrs Herbert Stevens, which grows amongst valerian, soapwort, silver beet and zucchini, and Safrano, which thrives amongst the feverfew and thymes.
One of her most famous roses is Mutabilis, which was immortalized in a painting by Sidney Nolan in 1945 at the height of their love affair. Another sentimental favourite was Duchesse de Brabant, grown from a cutting taken from the grave of her mother Ethel Baillieu, who died in 1932, and planted in the walled perennial border of Heide I.
Other favourites included the Bourbons: La Reine Victoria; Mme Pierre Oger; and Souvenir de la Malmaison, both bush and climbing forms (1st photo), as well as the Hybrid Perpetual, Reine des Violettes (2nd photo).
Other famous old roses grown include The Apothecary’s Rose, R. gallica officinalis (one of John’s favourites); Cardinal de Richelieu (photo 1); both Tuscany and Tuscany Superb; the Autumn Damask (photo 2); Ispahan; Cuisse de Nymphe émue; and R. indica major.
If you are interested to learn more about Sunday’s roses at Heide, it is well worth reading the book, which includes comprehensive plant lists of all the trees, roses and herbs in the back. Suffice to say, we certainly shared similar tastes when it came to choosing Old Roses. Albertine; Alister Stella Grey (top centre); Archiduc Joseph (top right); Cécile Brunner (top left); Celeste; Cornelia; Devoniensis; Fantin Latour; Geranium; Jaune Deprez; Lamarque (bottom right); Mme Alfred Carrière; Mme Louis Lévêque; Maxima; Mutabilis; Penelope; Rosa Mundi; Roseraie de l’Hay (bottom middle); York and Lancaster; and Stanwell Perpetual (bottom left) are but a few shared loves.
