Adelaide Rose Festival 2002 and the International Rose Garden: In the City of Adelaide region of South Australia
On our city street corners, in the squares and through vast parkland plots, our public roses are back in bloom, proclaiming Adelaide as the rose capital of Australia. And in late October, thousands of blooms, shrubs and garden displays are moving into Botanic Park for the second Adelaide Rose Festival, October 31 - November 3.
First, however, a pretty detour amongst several walkable city council rose plantings takes us just across the Torrens as it curves beneath the ornate cast iron zoo bridge. The walled terraces down to the water are planted exclusively with heritage roses - teas, chinas and climbers, all 1200 of them. Cut across the University Oval in the Parklands towards the spires of St. Peter’s Cathedral and you’ll find Pennington Gardens at their springtime best, while just up the hospital hill to North Adelaide, the rose beds in Brougham Gardens have burst into bloom too. Over in the South Parklands, great terraces of colour in Veale Gardens invite a slow fragrant stroll… or waddle. (We watched a mother duck take a dozen ducklings in amongst the straw mulch).
That’s a long established rose lover’s haven, but the Torrenside heritage rose garden opposite the zoo’s. Popeye landing is only a few years old and so you might not have found it yet. Help is on the way. You will be able to weave your way between the best of the rose capital with the help of a new “Rose Gardens of Adelaide Walking Guide” to be launched during the Adelaide Rose Festival. It will be available from the Adelaide City Council Visitor Centre in Pirie Street (behind the Adelaide Town Hall).
As Botanic Park undergoes a kind of colossal Back Blitz operation for the Adelaide Rose Festival 2002, we drift across Plane Tree Avenue to 1.5 hectares of rose enthusiast heaven. Off Hackney Road in the Botanic Garden, the Adelaide International Rose Garden has made astonishing progress since the first of its 5000 plants went in during August 1999, with its official opening coinciding with the first Rose Festival exactly two years ago. We were amazed to see the before-and-after matched shots as we compared camera tapes from October 2000 with the pictures in the same locations today. From promising pinpoints of-blooms amongst a lot of brown mulch to long and broad lines of colour, from boot high climbers and bare wire structures to green pillars and arches overladen with sprays of flowers, it’s a transformation that backs Adelaide’s title.
We really can claim to be “the rose capital,” and not just because of the city’s spring show. The commercial numbers support it too, with about six out of ten of the nation’s cut flowers and nursery rose stock coming from South Australia. Senior industry people helped create this spacious million dollar garden, and the naming detail reminds us that this is a serious collection, properly numbered and identified for research and education. As with other parts of the Botanic Garden, however, it is also about sheer enjoyment. Where once the MTT trams rumbled, ramblers now thrive and once we’d banished the bus depot, we scored some original parkland back. Importantly, the International Rose Garden no longer involves an entry fee, as that’s been quietly abolished. Result? Many more visitors from near and far.
Throughout the Adelaide Rose Festival in Botanic Park next door, there will be high tea served amongst hybrid teas, music and self-guided tours. No doubt the staff gardeners, Peter, Adrian and Jordan, will score the usual query from jealous Eastern-states’ gardeners. “How do you put on shows like this?”, they frown. The short answer is live in Adelaide! Roses love the drier air of our Spring, Summer and Autumn, and the regular breezes help keep the bugs and mildew away. What’s more, behind all this beauty there is a very practical experiment going on. “We’re not spraying the aphids at all. These white creatures are doing the job instead,” Peter explained, pointing to banded nymphs or ladybird larvae that were munching their way through their prey, “And there’s a tiny parasitic wasp, too, that drills into them and lays its eggs. As they hatch, they eat their own way out.” Biological control is the way here. You will need quite a while to wander through the radiating paths and take in all the cultivars. The Charity Walk through the central arches, for instance, is devoted to varieties that raise money for causes like medical research - the rich apricot floribunda flowers of the Howard Florey rose set the tone. Further along, the Mary Potter is a tight pink bloom that’s beautiful for long stem cutting, and close by the creamy clusters are for Australia’s own Catholic visionary, Mary Mckillop.
Across the way, Botanic Park’s century old plane trees and Moreton bay figs are soon to provide a priceless green backdrop for the biennial Adelaide Rose Festival. Inside a giant marquee, a drystone-walled cottage is taking shape, looking like it was transported from the south of France. The winner of the indugural design competition in 2000, The Flower Garden, is obviously pulling out all stops for their “Mediterranea” exhibit. Under a spreading live tree nearby. Budgielong Theatre Company burst into song as they rehearsed “The Secret Garden” in readiness for daily alfresco performances in the festival. The Salvos will be here, too, because their first Australian open-air meeting was conducted from the back of a cart right here in the Botanic Park in 1880. Watch out for the Salvation Rose.
If you want to create a dry-land conservation conscious garden, bring your own palm tree. That’s exactly what SA Water have done, importing a grand old specimen from a Mile End garden. The crimson of Sturt’s Desert Pea will spill down from a sandy mound and gently curving walls of haybales with a rustic render will enclose a water bar. There will be clusters of food and wine café’s, and if you were amongst the 40,000 who came last time, expect more colour and greenery, more exhibits and stalls, and, of course, thousands of rose blooms like the brilliant reds of Climbing Cardinal, “Best Australian Bred Rose” from the National Rose Trial Garden ( in the Botanic Garden behind the ornate headquarters on Hackney Road). Grown by Knight’s Roses at Gawler, it will be launched at the coming event along with several other new commercial varieties.
The strong horticultural theme will be surrounded by a family festival, and we know how to run them. We are the Rose Capital, and it’s Spring, so hop on a special shuttle bus and come into beautiful Botanic Park for all the delights of the Adelaide Rose Festival.
2002 Adelaide Rose Festival
Botanic Park
Adelaide, South Australia, 5000October 31 - November 3
10:00 am to 6:00 pm daily.Adults $12.00
Seniors/Pensioners $9.00
Children 6-14 $5.00
Children to 5 yrs FreeBrochures
South Australian Visitor Centre
18 King William St
Adelaide, South Australia, 5000
Ph: (08) 8303 2033
Fax: (08) 8303 22492002 Adelaide Rose Festival Information
Call: 1300 655 276
Web: www.adelaiderosefestival.com.auRose Gardens of Adelaide Walking Guide - Adelaide City Council Customer Centre, 25 Pirie Street, Adelaide SA 5000 Ph: (08) 8203 7203 Email: info@postcards.sa.com.au
