Cromwell
Cottage Garden
Leslie and Lynette Dick purchased Cottage Garden only 5 years ago. It is a large, hilly garden which is being developed from an abandoned nursery that propagated old roses. There is plenty of space for ramblers and climbers to grow through native trees. One paddock contains most of the old propagation roses rescued from within the property. Development is ongoing.
O’Naturel
Brook and Lucie Lawrence have a vineyard, olive grove, pinenut plantation and winery on this property which had an existing garden, once in the NZ Garden Trust. The design is informal with peonies, roses, irises and shrubs in swooping borders. There is a row of hybrid musk roses adjacent to the winery. The surrounding trees were planted about 40 years ago.
Karen Rhind
Karen bought an olive grove 11 years ago. She built a house and has developed a modern style of garden using as little irrigation as possible. So, a garden specifically designed for the extremely low rainfall and high summer temperatures of Cromwell. There is a lavender paddock. Karen uses this lavender to make products she sells in the Tent House in the Cromwell Heritage Village. The garden features grasses, perennials and annuals rather than roses.
Lawrence Family Complex
Joan and Tony have designed and built three adjoining gardens, their own, Brook and Lucie’s, and the winery garden, now leased to Matt Connell Wines.
Joan and Tony’s garden uses formal construction utilising stone walls and hedges. The aim is to have a garden of peace and serenity. Green hedges, an orchard, and olive groves set the scene. Flower borders inter-fill, with colours restrained where visible from the house. The garden reflects Joan’s interest in old roses and species flowers, especially plants seen growing wild in Europe, North America, and Central Asia.
Brook and Lucie have placed their mark on similar design principles. The two gardens merge via the orchard walk.
The winery garden features a 150-year-old walnut tree. The garden was built around a handful of existing old roses. Alba roses have been left largely unpruned in the main border. These are now bordering on gigantic.
Clyde
Brandy Hill
Murray and Nolene Radka have built a house and developed a large garden on a hilly site from an empty paddock. Murray is passionate about old roses and with the dearth of propagating heritage roses around the world, this garden has become a critical international old rose collection. This is a huge collection of well-known and endangered old roses and forms a core-base for the Heritage Roses New Zealand Rose Register.
Pioneer Park
Pioneer Park is a public garden in the centre of Alexandra. There are speciality collections of tree peonies, well over by the time of the conference, peonies, lilacs, irises and modern roses. Of special note is the comprehensive and well laid out, collection of old roses planted by Heritage Roses NZ Central Otago members.
Old Vicarage
Neil and Christine Driver bought the Old Vicarage in 1975. The garden is based around heritage fruit trees, including two black mulberries, and a field with 150-year-old oaks. This is a large cottage garden including many old roses extending around the original house, but also to a cottage built in the 1960s on the banks of the Clutha River.
Orchard Garden
Orchard Garden, a large flat garden, was developed out of an orchard by Wendy Robertson and Dale Butcher. They ran a successful open garden, restaurant, and catering facility for many years. The garden features long walks with mixed beds featuring old roses, mature trees and a large maze. The garden has been recently bought by Bryan Raymond. We will be having the AGM and Conference Dinner here, the first booking under new ownership. The catering will be done by Wendy and Dale, returning to their old haunts.
Arrowtown
Penny Wallace
Penny has planted a garden if mixed borders around a historic stone miner’s cottage. The many roses are a mix of old and new often interplanted with peonies. The informal plantings are set off by an eclectic collection of 70 box balls.
Bendemeer
Bendemeer is a station garden surrounding a 19th century stone homestead. The large garden is in typical 1920s style with extensive low drystone walls extending across sweeping lawns. The garden is surrounded by huge trees with some magnificent pines. Old roses are generally large shrubs. The overall feeling is of calm. Access will be by shuttle up a long tortuous driveway.
Roseburn
Bob and Jean Britton designed and built this house and garden nestled on the bank of the mighty Shotover River 40 years ago. The property is intensely gardened with strong structural elements. There is an abundance of old roses. Shrub roses, ramblers and climbers are allowed a free reign. Of note are the Ken Nobbs’ bred ramblers.
Golden Hill
Pat Sew Hoy has created a relatively formal, mature garden. Pat has been careful to maintain mountain vistas at the end of walks by annual tree trimming. There are a number of old roses which form part of the mixed borders. The formal garden is surrounded by paddocks featuring silver birches.
Historic Villages and Countryside
Cromwell Historic Precinct
The Cromwell Historic precinct is a village constructed when the Clyde Dam waters inundated most of the original Cromwell town in 1992. The old town was built in the 1860s to serve the large gold mining community. Surviving buildings were earthquake protected and stone and wooden buildings built as replicas of those lost in the flooding. It is home to high end craft workers, art galleries, gift shops, cafes, and restaurants. It has a garden of old roses collected from those that were about to be lost. Shuttles will ferry delegates from the conference venue to the Historic Precinct on Thursday afternoon, prior to the official conference opening.
Clyde
Clyde is a historic goldmining town with original buildings in the main street. More recently more shops, galleries, gift shops, cafes and restaurants have been built close by. The main street is draped in old roses. Clyde is a shopping, eating, and visual gem.
Arrowtown
Another gold mining town, Arrowtown was built in the late 1860s. This town is “calendar picturesque’ with its original cottages in an avenue of trees. If you cannot find a shop in which to buy something, you need help. The shops in the main street are largely clothing, specialising in Merino wool. Cafes and restaurants abound. Heritage Roses NZ , Central Otago branch, planted out the Heritage Roses Trail. The trail takes about 2 hours to walk. Old roses have been planted around churches, the old jail, in parks, in the cemetery…..everywhere! A whole afternoon has been allocated to Arrowtown, one of the village gems of New Zealand.
Countryside
The bus trips to Clyde and Arrowtown are part of the visual treat of the region.
Wild briar roses line the two valleys. Enjoy them flowering wild as “old rose enthusiasts”. Unfortunately, briars simply love this continental climate with virtually no rain. You will be the only people in the region loving these roses. They are extremely invasive, along with some other introduced plants, verbascum, valerian, thyme, viper’s bugloss, and Californian poppies. All are the bane of farmers and conservationists, though rather beautiful in flower.
