First Rose In Old Parliament House Rose Gardens

Oh, Dennis you must feel so privileged to be working with such roses as those at Macarthur Garden. And such old Bushes. How do they compare with Modern Roses in Perfume, Growth & Disease Resistant etc? How thick would there stems be now? Probably silly questions I know.
Happy Rose Gardening.

Dianne, I am not going to take your question away from Dennis. These questions are not silly, that is how we all learn, modern roses are derived from old roses, so the perfume originally came from them. Growth varies dependant on variety. Disease resistance is an open book IMO, hope this helps till Dennis tells his story about the bushes under his care.

The roses in the Macarthur Garden are roses derived from the roses brought with the Macarthur Family rather than relocated centuries old plants. Nevertheless the roses have heritage dating back two centuries which is amazing. I consider I am the luckiest person to be working where I am. I was working with twenty volunteers and a National Capital Authority Co_Ordinator plus serveral of our own staff on Friday to renew all the companion plantings in The Ladies, Brionowski, and Rex Hazlewood Gardens. It was a wonderful morning where we replanted 160 French lavenders.
Getting back to the Macarthur roses I do not have much trouble at all with them, I keep all the roses healthy with manure, worm juice and the winter spray then this coming week I will start my eco spray for black spot and aphids. In the location we are in we just can't leave nature to take it's course, we are paid to control bugs and diseases and we do this in the most eco friendly way. This is done because we are always working amongst school groups, and the public. These people do not like chemicals.
Dennis

Dennis, Thanks for the info I appreciate you taking the time to answer questions. Can't wait to get down there and check out your gardens. Hope all your Lavenders like their new home.
Working with so many volunteers I am sure they see you as a
National Treasure down there.

Dimity, I do value all our volunteers very much. They are truly dedicated to their tasks and have a huge knowledge base on their own gardens. I am slowly trying to introduce them to to the other gardens in the estate and to all the techniques used in rose culture such as budding and grafting. We do have fun as well as doing the hard work each week. It was a highly organised and fun job to plant the lavenders.
Cheers
Dennis