Trip to Magic Garden Roses today

Hi , husband and i did the trip to Magic garden roses today , it was a two and a half hour drive each way from where we live , we stopped in Healesville for lunch and got to Magic about one thirty only to find it closed at two on a Sunday . A nice young fella was there and he agreed to let us stay longer as we had travelled so far , why didn't i check that !! Took my camera and snapped photos as we went along , checking for fragrance . In summary Magic Roses are at the end of their season i think , and the stock was down as they have sold a lot of their roses , looking at the empty rows. The planted display roses looked dry because of continual dry weather, but they still looked good. If they can survive these dry conditions they must be good roses ,as i mentioned to my husband as we went along, probably better to visit this nursery at a different time of the year .... but did get to see some of the roses i was after , will post some pics .... IMO....

Looking forward to seeing your photos Maree as I have purchased roses from them before but being in Qld it was by courier.

Thanks Brett , just got to get my son to help me post them . The people at Magic are very nice people , and conditions are very trying at the moment for them , they stand by their belief that they have good quality roses . It seems these days that growers have a smaller selection than they used too, so to obtain the rose that you would like , you need to research where it is available from and talk to the growers . They all seem to have different selections too , which is good , myself now , i need to be confidant that the grower i am purchasing from will provide me with quality roses ...

Thanks Maree! The roses I got were great and are doing well! Look forward to your photos as here in Qld we have very few rose farms so to speak.

There are quite a few here in Victoria and NSW , i definately have my favourite growers , times are tuff for some of them with dry weather and rose growing on the decline . I'm hopeless at posting photos ,as soon as son comes home i'll grab him lol !!!

Looking forward to seeing them Maree. You're right, if their roses are looking OK in this dry weather, they must be hardy and worthwhile IMO.
I'm sorry you only had a short time to have a look, must have been frustrating after such a long drive. Do you think it was worth going, even at this stage of their season? I'm still planning on going out there this week or next, but now I'm not sure.

Too bad time was so short, maree, but it's good that you got to see the place at the low ebb of the season. Look forward to pix! Thanks for taking them.

Silky and Betsy how could i not check the closing time duh !!! No worries though , we were there long enough to take some pics and have a look , the nice young fella stayed on. Silky i had a conversation with the Magic people and now is probably not the best time to visit . They do have some stock , but the roses i was after they didn't have , i'd wait until autumn or spring . One thing though ,this is a working rose farm ,theres no cafes or extras like some rose farms have . The guys there though are very firm in their belief that they do have quality roses , if you want to order best to ring and check what lines will be available this year ....

Thanks for that Maree, I'll have to wait then. Damn! Looking forward to your pics though!

No worries , just got to load them onto my computer and enlist my son to help post them ....

No pressure Lol

This weekend Silky , don't know about you , but in this current weather all i do is hand water ( no watering system here , one day ) go to work , come home cook tea etc , hand water , cool change please come soon lol ..

I am really interested to see which varieties have held up to this point in the season.

Also, I wonder if the MG people are aware of this board. Perhaps by way of introduction, someone should email them the url of this thread when the pix go up. There's a lot of rose knowledge at MG that I'd like to tap itno.

Good idea Betsy. There's been a lot of positive feedback about MG here so I'm sure they'd be pleased to hear it.
Maree, I'm the same, no automatic system here either. I did buy some AquaPore soaker hoses which have done a good job. The water weeps through slowly with tap on low. I've snaked them around some roses and camellias. Snap onto my hose. Thought I'd give them a try and happy with them. Will have to buy some more though, saves standing there for hours getting bitten to death by mozzies.

Excellent idea Betsy , i did have some email and phone conversations with them , just to get a handle of where they are at re roses ....