Flemington Racecourse rose curator Terry Freeman to retire after 40 years
Flemington Racecourse’s 16,000 roses are as much a feature of the Melbourne Cup Carnival as the horses. And the man behind them is about to oversee the delicate art of getting them to bloom for Cup Week for the very last time.
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A lot has changed about Flemington Racecourse’s rose garden since “keeper of the gardens” Terry Freeman arrived as a 16-year-old.
It was 1976 and Flemington’s display of about 6000 roses was already becoming a celebrated sideshow to the famous Melbourne Cup Carnival.
“What Flemington is today and what Flemington was 43 years ago, you wouldn’t pick it as the same place,” Freeman says.
Freeman has overseen the magnificent transformation of Flemington’s spectacular gardens for more than four decades, including 23 years as head gardener.
Now, he’s preparing to hand over the reins to long-time deputy Mick Ryan at the end of this year’s carnival, with travel high on the agenda.
“The gardens were much smaller (when I started),” he recalls.
“They started at the turnstiles where you walked in to the enclosure. There was just a gravel carpark and an old chain mesh fence along Epsom Rd. When you drove in along Epsom Rd, we used to say it was like Siberia. There was just nothing. There were 6000 roses back then. There are 16,000 now.”
Another significant change from those early days has been Freeman’s attitude toward the famous feature blooms.
“I didn’t like roses when I first came here,” he admits.
“Mum, I’d class her as a good gardener, but she couldn’t grow roses, so I’d developed this (negative) opinion of them.
“When I got the job here I thought, ‘It’s a job, but all they’ve got is roses’ and I wasn’t all that excited.
“Anyway, my opinion changed. I just learned from the other gardeners how to look after them properly.”
It’s a stark contrast to Ryan’s reaction to landing his role as part of Flemington’s “gardening gang” in 1989, also aged 16.
A local boy, Ryan had developed a passion for roses while helping his mother tend to hers, and working in Flemington’s garden was his idea of a dream job.
The keen young gardener twice completed work experience with the on-course gardeners, and eventually won an apprenticeship.
“I was rapt. I used to live across the road and I ran home to my mum to tell her,” Ryan says.
Flemington Racecourse has the largest public rose garden in the southern hemisphere. While the thoroughbreds are the headline act on race day, the roses have made their own mark in Victoria Racing Club history — a feat Freeman is largely credited for.
“He’s so passionate, really committed to the racing club. He’s here every day — I don’t think he’s ever had a sick day,” Ryan says.
“He’s forever in the garden looking at ways to improve and always trying to teach people and help out where he can. He never got married. This place is basically his wife and his life, he’s loved and cared for it.”
The gardening gang comprises 18 full-time staff, all well versed in the precise art of priming roses to open in all their glory for that magical week of the annual Melbourne Cup Carnival.
While Freeman admits there have been some nervous moments in preparing the roses for Cup Week over the years, he says worrying doesn’t help.
“We don’t get it wrong very often,” he says.
Though he recalls one failure in the early 1990s when a dry winter and overcast conditions in early spring meant the roses were slow to reveal their glorious blooms. We knew in September (they weren’t going to flower in time). We were pushing them along with fertiliser and all sorts of things, and it wasn’t until the media started appearing the week before the carnival, they were out here and said, ‘Hang on, there’s no roses’. It was in the papers, it was on the news that night … as they say, it went viral,” Freeman says.
“But they were sensational on Sandown Cup Day, which is the week after Stakes Day. There was not a soul here, and they were the best I’ve ever seen them.”
After 30 years mastering the craft of keeping roses (possibly the longest apprenticeship in equine history), Ryan knows he has big shoes to fill when he steps up to Freeman’s rose-keeping role. But he feels he’s had the best preparation possible.
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“(Terry’s taught me) everything I know today,” Ryan says.
“Everything about the roses he’s passed on over the years, including how to get them to flower on time. He’s a visionary and his passion for the place has rubbed off on me. He keeps reinventing the gardens and keeps the interest there. And that’s the way he’s taught me. I’ll keep innovating and keep looking at what else is out in the market. They’re always developing new roses.”
Ryan’s respect for his mentor extends beyond rose curation.
“Terry’s been a father figure to me. He’s been a mate, so I’ve learned a lot from him on life’s journeys, too,” he says.
“My father died when I was young, not long after I started and Terry was there for me. I was down in the dumps and ready to throw in my apprenticeship, but Terry had a good chat to me. He told me I had potential and convinced me to stick at it. Thirty years later, I still thank him for that.”
But lovers of Flemington’s glorious gardens need not fear any dramatic changes under the new helm.
“I like the garden the way it is,” Ryan says. “That’s why we’re a good team, because we both like it the way it is.
“There’s nothing like this anywhere else in the world. People from all over the globe come here and say they’ve never been anywhere like it. It’s the biggest public party in a rose garden, and that’s what Terry’s done.
“Everywhere you go, there’s colour and brightness, whether it’s up a stairwell or around a corner. It puts a smile on people’s faces.”
Despite working around some of the nation’s most famous equine champions, Freeman has rarely seen past the roses.
“I’d never set foot on a racecourse before I worked here. I’m not really a punter,” Freeman says.
“Working here for 43 years hasn’t helped my gambling abilities. The horses are here when we start but you wouldn’t really know if you’re watching a fast horse or a slow one.”
It’s a different story for Ryan, who admits he’s been caught up in the romance of the turf.
“The hairs on my neck still stand up as I see the horses jump out of the barriers,” Ryan says. “I’ve seen some amazing stories here — Damien Oliver winning the Melbourne Cup after his brother had just died. Michelle Payne on Prince of Penzance a few years ago and the first international horse winning in 1993.”
When the fanfare of the Melbourne Cup Carnival is done, new champions have made their mark in the record books and the last of the punters have left the track, the gardening gang will quietly resume their places on course.
There, they will set to work, meticulously and lovingly trimming back the signature roses, ready for another stunning floral display for New Year’s Day and the autumn carnival following that.
Only this time, Ryan will be guiding the team.
TERRY AND MICK’S GOLDEN RULES FOR BEAUTIFUL ROSES
• Fertilise regularly during the September to March growing season
• Give your roses a really deep watering during the growing season 2-3 times a week
• Don’t grow roses around trees. They want as much sunshine as possible and don’t like root competition from trees
• Don’t plant a rose where another rose has grown in the past three years. It’ll survive, but it won’t change. It’ll never be great rose. You’ve got to change the soil
• A lot of people just tip prune but you need to really prune. You’ve got to be cruel to be kind. You’ve got to get stuck into them and get rid of all the old wood, because they only flower on new growth