Spring is such a glorious thing! The September meeting of the Maleny Garden Club was an opportunity to take some time to enjoy the beauties of the season and catch up with gardening friends.
More than 60 members and visitors attended our meeting – again held at Maleny Showground Pavilion – and following COVID-Safe rules.
Many members are reaching their 15-year anniversary with the club and are progressively receiving certificates to mark the occasion. This month it was Jill and Harry Rowland (see photo in gallery) who received their certificates from President Bill Henman.
Our guest speaker was Leonie Kearney –a heritage rose expert from Rosevale Homestead in Samsonvale where she runs a nursery that is open to the public on Saturdays or by appointment. CLICK HERE for a link to her website or HERE for Facebook.
Leonie’s passions are heritage and old-fashioned roses as well as companion plants including perennials and bulbs. She brought many examples to show members (see photo gallery below).
Her talk covered types and names of roses that do well in South-East Queensland and the perennials and bulbs that look beautiful planted in a rose bed and “carry” the display if roses are looking less than their best by mid Summer.
She said flowers with spikes (such as blue Campanula) look particularly good with the rounded shape of roses. So do tall perennials such as Malvas and Hollyhocks and Cleomes.
Perennial varieties she also mentioned include Forget Me Nots, lace flowers, pink Achillea, baby gladiolus, Poppies, Helichrysum, Heliotrope, Nicotianias, Asters, Sweet William (Dianthus), with Verbena a good plant for the front of the garden.
Bulbs that Leonie recommends include the blue, pink or red Louisiana Iris.
She also spoke about fertilisers that roses like and the best times to apply these.
For more information from Leonie see our Tips and Tricks section.
CLICK HERE for a direct link to that page…and scroll down.
Leonie says heritage roses commemorate the “griefs and joys” of settlers starting a new life in Australia after a terrible sea voyage and it is important to keep a reminder of this in our gardens.
The settlers brought with them cuttings of plants from England and France to establish their new gardens. Leonie has been able to source some of these older varieties in old gardens around Australia..
She said many young people were planting roses in response to the COVID pandemic.
This is encouraging because it means heritage roses will continue to be enjoyed by future generations.
