New Advertiser gardening writer Michael Keelan: Adelaide’s weather has been perfect for roses this year
New gardening columnist Michael Keelan says our climate and COVID-19 lockdown have been good for at least one thing – our roses. Send him your questions.
Lifestyle
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Roses are sweeter than ever this spring, as perfect growing conditions have combined with extra care from gardeners with more time at home.
Having recently returned from opening the Renmark Riverland Rose Festival in October, The Advertiser’s new gardening writer, Michael Keelan, notes in his first column today that roses are “spectacular” this year.
“South Australia is seriously, without any question, the rose capital,” he said.
“We have the climate to die for and this season has been just perfect for roses, weatherwise.
“And the National Rose Trial Garden has been a wonderful testing ground, making sure that any new rose that’s released in Australia is going to work, it’s going to grow, it’s going to be disease-resistant, it’s going to have what it claims to have, perfume or colour and so forth.”
One of the driving forces behind the Trial Garden at the Adelaide Botanical Gardens is Kelvin Trimper, who is vice president of the Rose Society of SA and immediate past president of the World Federation of Rose Societies.
He believes this year has been the best in about a decade for roses.
“We had a perfect autumn, followed by an even better spring with no really hot days, so the roses have lasted and developed extremely well,” Mr Trimper said.
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“And the other thing is, if you look around Adelaide’s gardens, they are a little bit neater, tidier and more cared for I think and that’s due to COVID.
“People have pruned their roses well, they have fertilised their roses well, they have really looked after them well and the roses are repaying us all in spades, a really, really beautiful, fantastic season for roses.”
Rosarians are looking forward to the World Rose Convention, to be held in Adelaide Convention Centre in 2022 (postponed from 2021).
Keelan says the event will attract hundreds of delegates from around the globe, and showcase Adelaide as the true “city of roses”.
