VOTING RESULTS for the best perfumed rose at the STATE ROSE AND GARDEN SHOW.
MISTER LINCOLN...145....Parole....122......Papa Meilland 88....Heaven Scent 87. These Roses were Polled over two days. The Children's Rose was only shown on one day and scored 87
Other roses shown were Olde Fragrance....Ebbtide ....Darcy Bussell...Pat Austin...Sweet Intoxication...Double Delight...Young Lycidas ....The Wedding Rose and Chrysler Imperial
Lots of people enjoyed casting their vote for the rose with the best perfume.
JOAN BROADSTOCK PRESIDENT, Supporters Group for "Weekend Australian"
DESCRIBE THE GARDEN: It’s on 5 hectare adjacent to the historic Werribee Park Mansion, which is about halfway between Melbourne and Geelong. The Rose garden was officially opened in 1986 and now has more than 5000 roses. The design is in the shape of a five-petalled Tudor rose; those beds contain modern hybrid tea and floribunda roses. Pathways acts as a rose ‘stem’, leading to a rosebud-shaped section containing David Austin roses, and the Federation Leaf area containing Australian-bred roses. Around the perimeter are old species and heritage roses.
The roses are trained in many ways on arches, tripods, festoons and as weeping standards. It’s world-renowned and we get a lot of international rose enthusiasts visiting. We’re open every day of the year and it’s free to visit.
BIGGEST CHALLENGES: Although Parks Victoria manages the site, it would be impossible to maintain a garden of this size without volunteers. It is labor intensive! There are over a hundred in our group and we give over 10,000 hours of our time annually. The volunteers group started in 1993 to save the garden, and a few have here since that first day. We work Saturdays and Wednesdays and there’s always plenty of us turn up.
We’re a very active group and run the garden autonomously, even arranging for sponsorship from rose growers such as Treloar Roses and Neutrog. Fertilizers. We have all the roses on an audited database so we know exactly what we have.
SPECIAL EVENT: Next weekend, November 14-15, is the State Rose and Garden Show, from 10am-3pm. It’s free to attend and is a really festive occasion. There are some big names in gardening giving talks, such as Jane Edmanson, Angus Stewart and John Patrick from Gardening Australia, SBS’s Vasili Kanidiadis and Channel 9’s Melissa King.
WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL: The fact that it’s run by volunteers. It was awarded Garden of Excellence status by the World Federation of Rose Societies, the first in the southern hemisphere and the first rose garden run by volunteers to be honored with this award
More than 50 stallholders sell roses, other plants and all sorts of garden goodies and there’s a jazz band in the gazebo. For children there are lawn games and face painting. It’s a real carnival atmosphere. You can bring a picnic or taste a range of food from the food trucks. The volunteers will be giving guided tours and answering all sorts of rose questions over both days, as we’re thrilled to showcase the garden.
