Lady Hillingdon

The beautiful tea rose pictured above is still a baby in my garden, although I do have an older one in another section known as "Pop Oakley's Garden" in memory of my beloved grandfather who died in 2000. Unlike other teas grown here, this rose has remained relatively small, reaching a height of only 4 or 5 feet. The newer of the two plants has taken a while to settle in, but has started to take off this season. Both are grafted plants, and I would like to try growing her on her own roots as I find tea roses thrive under their own steam rather than grafted onto another understock.

Lady Hillingdon was introduced into commerce in 1910, and she opens a rich apricot yellow colour before gradually fading to a softer shade. Like all of the tea roses, she has a wonderful fragrance, and is very hardy in this area.

Carabella

Carabella is a handy Aussie-bred rose that is incredibly disease-resistant and long flowering. I have seen it used to great effect planted along pool fences as a screen, and in hedging schemes, and very few roses could match it in this area. I originally had three planted together, but the immature Silky Oak Tree that was growing near them at the time of planting in 1996 has since grown into a very large and greedy mature tree, and the two Carabellas planted at its base died due to me not upping their water and feeding to compensate. This sole surviving Carabella is still doing very well despite living in shade for most of the day. The scent of the single blush pink flowers is supposed to be "sweet and mild", but I must admit that I have never once thought to smell the blooms so I can't verify this statement.

The result of not grubbing out All of Dr. Huey

This photo depicts what happens when you move roses and don't get all of the root system of my arch nemesis Dr. Huey....very healthy Dr. Hueys erupting from the earth and developing very quickly into leggy muscleman shrubs. This bed used to run along a fence line that was removed when my whinging triumphed and I was given permission to add the calf paddock to my garden. About ten roses have been taken out in order for me to plant some teas next year, but the Doctors have their own world supremacy agenda...

Tumbarumba Schoolhouse Rambler

This beautiful specimen of the rambler hybrid multiflora rose 'Tumbarumba Schoolhouse' is growing in the garden of Tricia Robinson, who kindly took these photographs in order for me to say without any doubt that this rose does NOT grow anywhere in my garden.

Two plants of it were definitely planted in c. 1996, but I can't recall having noticed a rambler of this distinct colour ever flowering at 'Eurimbla'.

As far as Tricia and I can tell, these two photos are the only ones to be found of Tumbarumba Schoolhouse anywhere on the Internet. The only information I can find about it is scribbled in my rose map book, and it says that TSH is a dark pink multiflora rambler.

I obtained my specimens from Hedgerow Nursery at Tumbarumba, and if I could only remember where it was that I had "safely" stashed my old rose catalogues, I would be able to retrieve the information about this rose that was included in Hedgerow's 1996 catalogue.

If my track record is anything to go by, that event isn't going to be happening any time soon, so until the old catalogues surface, or someone else offers up some information about this rose's provenence, Tricia's two lovely photos are the sum total of our information about Tumbarumba Schoolhouse.

Red Coat

Above: Lav, Dee and Murphy taking refuge in the shade of Red Coat and Shropshire Lass. Both shrubs were planted in 1996.

Red Coat is another of David Austin's tried and true early releases. 1973 is given as its year of release, and I discovered it about 15 years ago along with its pale pink counterpart Dapple Dawn. Both are fantastic shrub roses, perfect for hedging along fence lines or just to create a defining area as in the photo above. These little Red Coats were planted in Spring 2010, and have powered along. This photo was taken in October, and as of today(November 29) they are totally smothered in blooms from top to bottom. The repeat bloom is very generous

The individual bloom is not beautiful in itself..'cheery' would be a better word to describe its colour and form. But several plants or more in full bloom is certainly a beautiful sight- I would love to plant ten or so along a boundary fence line.

I will stick my neck out and declare Red Coat disease free in this garden...to my recollection it has never been visited by the dreaded black spot, although truth be told, it would have to be absolutely decimated by black spot before I would even notice.

Swan

Swan is a David Austin rose that is like the little girl in the nursery rhyme..."When she was good she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was HORRID!" (my Nan used to recite this to me when I was little and behaved like a heathen)

At its best, Swan has blooms that have the slightest tinge of limey-buff about them. At its worst, as pictured above, they seem to be a dirty off-cream colour, and at times the petals have a brown tinge to the edges. My two seem to suffer quite a bit of die-back, but they are in a less-than ideal position, receiving only a few hours of full fun each day.

Golden Celebration

The glorious David Austin rose 'Golden Celebration' is absolute top of my list of Yellow roses. It is multi-functional- behaving as either a small climber or big shrub as circumstances dictate- flowers repeatedly in big flushes; is healthy; possesses a lovely fragrance and has blooms of the most beautiful formation. A perfect rose that I really can't find fault with.

Unknown Rambler

I would love to know the name of this big white rambler. Its Spring display is long and lovely, and it has extremely healthy foliage. It would make a wonderful high screening hedge. My old rose map book has "Tumbarumba Schoolhouse" recorded in this position, but from sketchy memory this rose is not white. Scrawled in the margin of the map book in very messy writing (obviously written whilst wandering around the garden with book in hand), it says "Cottage White" multiflora planted 15-9-96. I wonder if "Cottage White" multiflora is identical to "Cottage Pink" except for colour.... if it is this rose is definitely NOT Cottage White, as Cottage Pink is single. Suggestions, anyone????

POST SCRIPT: Thanks to the very kind and most helpful assistance of a fellow rose gardener named Tricia, I now have positive confirmation that I do NOT have Tumbarumba Schoolhouse growing anywhere in my garden, so my two specimens from many moons ago must have gone to the big compost heap in the sky. That leaves the number one suspect for this rose as being "Cottage White" if my dodgy rose map book is anything to go by.

Tricia has given me permission to publish her photos of Tumbarumba Schoolhouse in this blog as the only record of this elusive rose found anywhere on the internet...many thanks indeed!