Welcome to my Roses

Above: "Eurimbla" farm house in c. 1960(above) and this year (below). Two of the three Kurrajong trees are still here...the middle one had to be removed due to borer infestation (which had me doing a happy dance as it was right in the middle of the verandah entrance to the front door)

The irrigation dairy property known as "Eurimbla" is located on the Lachlan River in central-west New South Wales. It was once part of the big North Logan Station enterprise owned by the Sloan family, and the home on 'Eurimbla' was in fact built in the 1920s for Daisey Muriel Sloan, granddaughter of the original pioneer James Sloan, several years after her marriage to Harold Thirkell in 1922.

On May 30,1836, Scotsman James Sloan purchased just over one thousand acres of land "situated in the County of Bathurst, at Warwick Plains, bounded on the south by a marked tree on the Lachlan River". This selection was the beginning of North Logan Station, and James Sloan continued to acquire more surrounding land until his Lachlan River holding totalled over several thousand acres of prime farming country. After his marriage in 1843 to Marion Stoddart at Bathurst, James Sloan and his wife resided at North Logan in a small cottage with slab walls and bark roof until a more comfortable pisé home was constructed. Their son, Ivie James Sloan, took over North Logan Station and was the father of Daisy Muriel Sloan.Sadly, Ivie and his wife Helen Jessie Campbell lost two of their five children in early childhood, both of whom were sons...James died in 1904 aged 6 or 7, and his little brother Ivie died in 1906 aged six. Daughters Ivy, Daisy and Marjorie all survived to adulthood, but because there were no Sloan sons to carry on, North Logan eventually passed out of the family.

Being such a large property, North Logan was split up for sale, and in the mid 1950s the "Eurimbla" block, situated on the northern side of the Merriganowry Bridge over the Lachlan River, was purchased by my father-in-law, Lance Lamond. He was one of a family of successful dairy men from Nowra, and established with his wife Ann Jamieson a very successful dairy and Friesian stud which is now run by my husband Craig and our boys.

Luckily for me this area is perfect for rose growing, because in the early 1990s, when I innocently purchased my first barerooted heritage roses, I became absolutely smitten. The roses in question- Buff Beauty and Felicia, thrived, and I began researching hybrid musks in an attempt to discover more about these beautiful roses that were so different in every way from the hybrid teas and floribundas that I had already planted along the back fence.In my first garden, cottagey confusion reigned as perennials and annuals were all bunged in besides roses and herbs and shrubs. As I became more and more obsessed with these magnificent old roses, quickly followed by an addiction for David Austin roses, fencelines were moved outwards, lawn disappeared and any plant whose name was not preceded by the prefix 'Rosa' was shown the door.

At one stage I reached 1000 roses and stopped counting, but fate stepped in in the form of a drought that lasted half a decade, and I was forced to make some radical changes. In my quest to cram as many roses as I possibly could into our garden, I had created beds where roses weren't really suited, and they had struggled along poorly or died during the dry years. These beds were not mulched during this time, as every bale of lucerne hay was earmarked for use for the dairy herd.

Hares also had decided that roses were fair game in a dry, dusty,brown environment, and I lost a long hedge of Mary Rose, Windchester Cathedral and Redoute after they had been ringbarked by these pesky critters.

Other roses just turned up their toes for reasons not obvious-often they were flanked on either side by healthy specimens of the same variety. One rose that laughed in the face of adversity was the old war horse Dr. Huey...every passing summer I was taunted by long arms of red-clad branches waving at me from every bed. Initially I participated in futile eradication campaigns, but soon lost heart and as a reward for the Dr.'s perseverance I have left him to run free, throwing his loving arms over everything near him like a friendly old drunk.

I dismantled many beds, reverting back to large expanses of kikuyu lawn, and am still deciding on what direction to take with existing beds. My passion for roses has not abated at all, but I have changed my allegiances over the past decade...where once I had every Austin rose ever released in Australia, I have drastically culled my collection and have given my heart to the Teas...I want them all!!!!

This blog has one simple purpose...to photograph and discuss the roses that grow well in my garden, in the hope that it will help other country gardeners make decisions about the types of roses to grow in theirs.