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When the family moved up to the Kauaeranga Valley in Thames, we had nearly six acres of land to move into. Part of this was to be our garden, but we didn't have any overall plan. It just sort of grew, like the grass and the weeds. What I did do however, was buy a birthday present for Tess, a large and luxurious volume. Botanica's Roses. This book was handsome to look at, being protected by a large, sturdy, cardboard case, with a green plastic handle. In addition to being an encyclopaedic collection of information about roses, it also contained a CD ROM, with all the information and pictures that you can find in the book, and some additional information about the history of the rose, and rose breeders. I thought Tess might become interested enough to help her decide on roses for the garden, but I didn't know that it would be come such a fascinating hobby and interest for both of us.



We had two homes in the UK before moving out to NZ, but I think we were just too busy with our young family to think too much about gardens. 21 Whiteacres was rather small for roses anyway, and 1 Greystoke Gardens was overhung in the front garden by a very large copper beech, the shade it cast made it difficult to grown any flowering plants successfully. I hadn't taken much interest in roses, certainly. However I can recall when as a nine year old, approximately, we moved from 13 Harrowby Rd to 1 Ancaster Rd, in West Park, Leeds. This house, a modern brick house, had a large, walled garden at the back, and here mum grew the roses she loved. I can remember how she told me about Peace, the doyenne of hybrid tea roses, and how she enthused over Fragrant Cloud, making sure that we appreciated this rose's wonderful fragrance. We grew Golden Showers up the side of the house by the French windows, along with a magnificent Jackmanii clematis. In Bramhope, there was a spectacular hedge of Masquerade. In "Inthorpe" we certainly had a number of roses, though I forget which, other than the Danse de Feu growing up the house wall by the little lounge window (in New Zealand this rose is called Spectacular) Mum showed us how to prune the roses. We mostly had hybrid teas, as they were the "in" roses in the '50s and 60's, so we cut the roses back a bit in autumn, and cut them down to the third or fourth outward facing bud on each cane in the late winter, which was quite a time consuming job. I think my patience ran out after just a few roses, but now we learn we don't need to be quite so painstaking, just a pair of shears, cutting the rose down by about two thirds, is sufficient for ordinary garden purposes.



So we had a large garden to grow in the Kauaeranga Valley. As I say, we didn't stick to any very restrictive planning, but we certainly grew some roses. Not a lot, but enough to start learning something about these wonderful flowers. We got to love Sally Holmes, a modern shrub rose, bred in the UK in 1976. In Botanica it says this rose is white, but it opens from a pale pink bud, and there is a flush of pinky cream in the open bloom. There is a lovely scent, and the flowering habit is one of long, upright canes, with a mass of blooms at the end of each cane. It was never out of flower. We planted a number of David Austin English roses, including Graham Thomas (1983), the first yellow bloom of this class, a clear yellow in an old fashioned form, very floriforous, on a sturdy and healthy bush, and possessing the typical fragrance of so many of these Austin roses. We also planted Golden Celebration, another English rose (1987) which is rather similar to Graham Thomas, being a fine yellow, but more truly golden, with large, very fragrant flowers, more open and with fewer petals than Graham Thomas. A fine rose was Norwich Castle, (Beales, UK, 1980) which is a cluster flowered (floribunda) rose, but with the flowers every bit as fine as any hybrid tea, and probably of our favourite colour, a coppery-orange bud and early flower, ripening to a pastel apricot. In addition, though Botanica say it has a faint scent, in fact our example had a wonderfully sweet and honeyed perfume. The flowers looked gorgeous on the bush, but also looked, as I say, like fine hybrid tea, and lasted well indoors. We don't have an example here in Wellington, but when our back garden is done, we will certainly look to plant one. Along the side of the house we planted a hedge of Mutabilis. This shrub rose is vigourous, almost thornless and bears a continuing succession of single flowers, these open as a yellow bud and flower, turning to pink and then crimson. It is a parent of the previously mentioned Masquerade . In bloom, the effect is of a hedge on which thousands of multicoloured butterflies have alighted. It has an interesting history, having been introduced to the public in 1932 by a Swiss botanist, Henri Correvon, from a specimen he found at Prince Ghilberto Borromeo's garden in Isola Bella, in the middle of Lake Maggiore in Italy. How it originally got to the island or from where, no-one knows - it must have been a natural mutation of an old China rose, hence its name. We can thoroughly recommend this rose if you have room for a large and spectacular hedge.



However, like any horticultural endeavour, one can also have disappointments. We planted Schoolgirl against the pergola alongside the garage. This is a large flowered climber, the colour of apricots, almost unique in climbers. But our bush didn't flower very well, and the plant itself was a straggly and barely clothed waif. We also planted a Mermaid, but very much in the wrong spot, just at the beginning of this same pergola and at the start of the path to the front door. Never plant Mermaid in such a position. It will eventually grow enormous, but in addition it is defended with some of the most vicious, incurving spines in the whole rose armoury. I did over time remove all the spines from the lower branches, but it never flowered as profusely as I imagined it should. I planted a New Dawn by our front door, where there was some morning sun, but shaded in the afternoon. Again, this rose sulked and never displayed more than a desultory show. We grew a Golden Showers, but as is mentioned in the references, the blooms of this climber are very short lived, and I don't think we would bother with this rose again. We found that the deep red roses weren't so successful either, with a tendency to balling of the flowers, or untidy or fading blooms in the strong sunshine of this part of the world.

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To bring things up to date, we are now in Wellington, and its wind, and certainly in Waipapa Rd we get the wind from the south in our back garden, and from the northwest in our front garden. And how it can blow. The garden was not much to write home about when we arrived, and we still have a lot of work to do, we have had plans drawn up for its development. But in the meantime we have worked very hard on the front garden, and though this will be repaved, the actual form of the garden won't change. The soil here was horrible, thick, black, dirty clay with rock debris. We dug out tens of barrowloads of this so called soil, and got a load of topsoil and bags of artifical soil to fill the beds. We then planted some roses. We also kept a few roses, though at the time we didn't know what they were, but with looking after they have come away beautifully and have provided us with great pleasure.


What have we planted, and why? Well sometimes it was ideas from the rose books, sometimes what was available in the garden centres, and sometimes what some of Tess's colleagues at work had recommended. We haven't had a single dud, so we have been pretty lucky.

There was one climbing rose on the garage wall which we kept, we are certain now that this is Compassion. With feeding, and pruning this has come on beautifully, though it does seem to be the most affected by blackspot. It is a salmon-pink to apricot rose, climbing large flowered, lovely scent, and is supposed to be the most popular climber in the UK. Bred by Harkness 1987. I can see why it is so popular, as it has everything a rose should have - form, colour, scent, abundance and continuance. We have partnered this with Dublin Bay, which hardly needs writing about - a floriferous brilliant red flowered climber, healthy, good foliage, the flowers remain bright and unfading, and it is always in flower. Its only failing is its lack of scent, but in looks, climbing up the whitewashed garage wall, it is unsurpassed. It is very popular in NZ and Australia, having been bred in NZ by McGredy in 1975.

Having started on the climbers, I will mention the other three climbers we have planted on the front fence. First is Crepuscule, a noisette rose (Dubreuil, France 1904). This we chose from Botanica's description. We are so delighted with this rose, it has shades of cream and delicate apricrot, in dainty flowers with a gorgeous scent. The noisettes were first bred in the mid nineteenth century in the USA in Lousiana, and seeds sent to France where further examples were bred. Crepuscule was one of these, and on a recent trip to Trinity Farm at Otaki, north of Wellington, where there is a fine collection of old roses, we found other lovely examples of this class, including Lemarque, Claire Jacquier and Mme Alfred Carrière. One or more of these climbers will find themselves in our back garden, definitely. If you don't know the noisettes, they are a bit like ramblers, but not so thorny, they are all wonderfully fragrant, and they are repeat flowering. I am not sure, but I think it is likely they do better in warmer climates. Further along the fence is Climbing Étoile de Holland (Verscheuren, Holland, 1919). Haven't we done well, what a fantastic climber. A deep red, with flowers of tea form, as fragrant as any flower in our garden, born on a vigorous and well clothed plant.

Past the gate we then planted Lorraine Lee, bred for the warmer climbs of Australia by Clark in 1924, this is a vigorous Giganta type, with fragrant apricot-pink flowers repeating well through the summer and autumn.


Having dealt with the climbers, I will mention another rescued rose, Double Delight, which is a standard at the northern corner of the front garden. Again this has come on well with a severe pruning and attention. We didn't know to start what this was, but Tess tracked it down in Botonica. It is a hybrid tea type bush, the flowers are a creamy yellow with petals edged with pink. It also has a fine hybrid tea fragrance. It grows well, and the flowers are lovely in a vase. This is an American bred rose, 1977. In the northern bed in front of the house are these roses:

Just Joey, a hybrid tea of a blend of orange and yellow, lovely fragrance, which one would expect as one of its parents is Fragrant Cloud. (Cant, UK, 1972)


Blackberry Nip, not described in Botanica. This was recommended by one of Tess's patients at the Mary Potter Hospice; she told Tess you just have to have this rose. Bred by Rob Somerfield of Tauranga in NZ, it is a hybrid tea of classic form, deep purple blooms which stay a lovely colour, and a great tea fragrance. It is doing really well for us.

Margaret Merrill, a floribunda rose, almost pure white, merest trace of pink in the centre, bright yellow stamens, lovely fragrance. Recommended in the NZ Gardener magazine. (Harkness 1978)



Many Happy Returns, another Harkness rose (1991), a modern shrub with blush pink flowers, healthy and covered with flowers. It is described as spreading, and it certainly is, almost like a ground cover, and we are not sure if we will keep it in its present position as it is encroaching on the path.

Poetry in Motion, a hybrid tea, but with lots of flowers, a pure golden primrose colour, lovely scent (Harkness 1997)




Freisia, also known as Sunsprite. A deep yellow floribunda, with the most luscious perfume, extremely floriferous. (Kordes, Germany 1977)


Europeana. We bought two of these roses, one on either side of our front entrance, on the recommendation of someone at the local garden centre. Tess has seen one truly enormous example which was covered in flowers, we will have to keep ours somewhat more in check. This is a cluster flowering rose of a bright red or crimson, extremely floriferous and repeat flowering, on a large, vigorous bush. It doesn't seem to have any scent, though. (deRuiter, Holland, 1963)

In our southern border, we start with the other Europeana and then come to:-

Blueberry Hill, not described in Botanica, but a spectacular bush floribunda, with semidouble lilac flowers with a scent of apples. Flowers smother the bush in its first flush, and it repeats well. (Carruth 1997)

Matawhero Magic. Tess first saw a bed of this rose in the Botanic Gardens in Wellington and said she just had to have one, or two or more. Well, we have one, the colour is a bright and clear apricot and cream, It is also known as Florida, but doesn't appear in Botanica. It is a hybrid tea, but could almost be called a cluster flowered rose, as there are plenty of flowers, which are born on a tall healthy bush, but only have a faint scent. (McGredy 1998, NZ)

Spirit of Hope, again not in Botanica, and another McGredy rose, the last he produced before he retired. This is the official rose of the NZ Red Cross, and it is a fine dark red hybrid tea, but again floriferous enough to be almost a cluster rose. It has a good scent and is very healthy. It is a fitting tribute to the work McGredy in New Zealand, and all the wonderful roses he has introduced over the years. (1998)

Graham Thomas, mentioned above, and now planted next to Crepuscule and Dublin Bay. This is thriving in its sheltered spot in the corner of the garden by the garage and its description has already been given, but here is a photo.

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There you are, a resumé of all the roses in our garden, of which there is not a single one that doesn't deserve its place, and can be recommended in any similar region of the world. Of course roses aren't entirely trouble free; because of the wind, all our roses require some sort of staking, they do need to be sprayed regularly for aphids and blackspot, and they need deadheading and pruning. But as I have already mentioned, for ordinary garden requirements, you don't have to be too scientific about pruning, and many rosarians use organic sprays and methods in fighting pests and diseases. We have so far been using commercial sprays, but this takes only about twenty minutes every fortnight. The gardeners at the Lady Norwood rose garden in the Botanic Gardens here in Wellington use entirely organic methods in keeping their wonderful garden healthy and growing well. Although I have mentioned Botanica's Roses as our primary reference, we have also found very useful the small volume "The Rose Expert" by Dr Hessayon, in the Garden Expert series, and of course there must be hundreds of different volumes on roses. Our Readers Digest Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and Flowers has been well thumbed over the years. A couple of weeks ago though I was in a second hand book shop where I found a near pristine copy of Nancy Steen's "The Charm of Old Roses". Nancy was a real pathfinder in rediscovering old roses in New Zealand, and this book was long out of print. It was later reprinted and has been a good find. I also have the two volumes of Trevor Griffiths, "My World of Old Roses" another NZ book by an enthusiast and commercial grower in South Canterbury. In addition one's connection to the internet has to be the greatest resource of all, with the ability to find out about almost any rose imaginable (and perhaps unimaginable) and links to gardens, growers etc. I append a few sites to get you started, but don't forget Google will search for any rose quite easily.








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