Roses Down Under
The World’s Most Beautiful Roses, Where They Came From and Where They Are Going
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About the Book
The rose is undoubtedly the most popular garden flower in the world. When settlers came from the Northern Hemisphere to Australia and New Zealand they brought their treasured roses with them. Roses Down Under follows the way roses may have been introduced into both countries where they not indigenous.
In each country enthusiastic gardeners and Rosarians such as Alister Clark and Ron Bell in Australia and Ken Nobbs and Sam McGredy in New Zealand were inspired to develop their own varieties. There is a chapter dealing with the complexities of hybridisation, going through the process step by step, so the reader can follow in their footsteps.
Various rose breeders from both countries, both professional and amateur, are listed, together with numerous photographs of their significant varieties. These illustrate the differences, as well as the similarities, of roses produced in Australia and New Zealand since the days of the first settlers.
The Victoria State Rose Garden at Werribee, outside Melbourne, has been chosen to represent the large number of rose gardens in Australia, with many photographs illustrating the diverse collection of roses growing there. In New Zealand, the Trevor Griffiths Rose Garden in Timaru was chosen because of the comprehensive nature of roses planted in that very interesting garden.
The final chapter asks where roses will be in the future. Will varieties produced in each country be similar, or very different? One thing is sure. They will always be, for gardeners, the Queen of Flowers.
About the Author
Dawn Eagle lives in the village of Prebbleton just outside Christchurch, New Zealand. Her two sons live locally, and her daughter lives in Melbourne, Australia. In her retirement years she has a fulfilling and interesting life tending her large garden and breeding roses which are grown in New Zealand and Japan. She and her late husband had two rose books published years ago, and in 2012 her first novel, Eliza and the Blue Rose, was published. This book is the culmination of many years of research on the history of roses in the Antipodes which she has always found fascinating. Dawn can be contacted at rosepeople@gmail.com.