ROSES - Part 4

Articles In This Section:

· ROSES - Part 1

· ROSES - Part 2

· ROSES - Part 3

· ROSES - Part 4

Surely roses such as Lorraine Lee, Sunny South, Miss Marion Manifold, Countess of Stradbroke, Marjorie Palmer, Lubra, Black Boy, Nancy Hayward, Jessie Clark, Zara Hore Ruthven, Salmon Spray, Borderer, Sirius, Nigger Boy, Kitty Kininmonth, Flying Colours, Gwen Nash, Thea Harrison, Rod Stillman, Black Magic, Birthday Present, Princeps, Nancy Elizabeth, Mrs E. Willis, and many others, deserve world-wide popularity. Oversea growers report having tried some of them, but it has nearly always seemed that the trial has been brief. Many, including our favourite Lorraine Lee, do not produce conventional classically formed blooms, but are outstanding in other ways. Plants need to be well developed for their uses and virtues to become apparent.

Golden Dawn was sent out by the raiser for his own profit, and was publicized with a colour-plate. It has achieved world fame as a specimen bloom and a garden rose. Penelope, Mrs R. M. Finch, Golden Dawn, Mary Guthrie, Mrs Harold Brookes, Countess of Stradbroke, and Cherub have all received oversea awards, but they would hardly be our complete selection of Australian roses. We have many better varieties.

Hundreds of oversea varieties come to us with descriptions that should lead us to burn all their predecessors and fill our gardens with the new ones. We try many of them in their first year and quickly find their worthlessness. Very few people buy Australian novelties until someone has grown them for several years and either exhibited them successfully or spoken highly of their value, for example, Nancy Hayward, Marjorie Palmer, Borderer, Thea Harrison, and Zara Hore Ruthven. They become known only by merit, and many very good Australian roses have been passed over simply because the public has never seen or heard of them. Very few are of the specimen-bloom type, but most of them are very strong, disease-resistant and continuously in bloom-ideal roses for garden display and home decoration. They are not our classical blooms, but they provide a constant joy.