Emily Cottage in Kangaroo Valley is adorned almost all year round by the most enchanting peachy pink blooms of a superb floriferous heritage rose, a softly fragrant Tea rose.
Almost every ‘less-than-modern’ garden in the Valley is blessed with the beautiful blooms of this gorgeous old garden rose. Elaine and Ron Bower, who are passionate gardeners and long-term residents of Kangaroo Valley, have been lovingly sharing around cuttings of this heritage rose in the last decade and a half or so. Today, this historical rose is somewhat ‘saved’ from being lost and adorns many private gardens in Kangaroo Valley, thanks to this wonderful couple!
Sometime in or around 2007, Elaine and Ron were entrusted to care for the gardens of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Kangaroo Valley. This historical church was originally designed and built in 1871 by John Horbury Hunt, a prominent 19th century architect from New South Wales. Whilst tending to the church gardens, Elaine and Ron spotted an almost thornless rose bush which they thought looked particularly lovely and decided to take some cuttings. The cuttings struck very easily and were generously shared with members of the church. Before long, many gardens in Kangaroo Valley had this rose blooming profusely. And so popular was this rose, it was lovingly given a nick-name, ‘The Kangaroo Valley Rectory Rose’!
It has strong characteristics of a Tea rose, and there was no doubt that it was an old garden rose, which had highly likely been planted in the church gardens by a previous church Minister. Elaine did some research at the time, and thought the rose could be the heritage rose, Rosa ‘Jean Ducher’, bred in 1874, but was not certain of its accurate identification, nor when it was planted.
As a long-time enthusiast of ‘lost’ roses, and having had immersed myself in the study of heritage roses during my recent chemotherapy treatment, I undertook further investigations on the identity of the ‘Kangaroo Valley Rectory Rose’. Chapman et al (2008) document that this rose had been commonly sold by garden nurseries during the latter part of the 20th century as R ‘Jean Ducher’. In their book Tea Roses; Old Roses for Warm Gardens (2008), they state “Although it is well-known in Australia and New Zealand as ‘Jean Ducher’, the correct name for this rose is ‘G Nabonnand’”.
One distinct observation of the ‘Kangaroo Valley Rectory Rose’ is that its stems and branches are completely thornless (although it has hidden prickles underneath its leaves!). Chapman et al describe R ‘G Nabonnand’: ”The bush is tall, strong, spreading and virtually thornless, but the leaves have many small, hooked prickles underneath to catch the unwary.” The original R ‘Jean Ducher’ is quite prickly. They explain R ‘Jean Ducher’ “… to be a stout, stiff grower and a colour plate in ‘The Garden’ of 6 September 1879 shows that the stems were very prickly”.
Kangaroo Valley can get very hot in summer; it also gets very cold in winter with quite a number of overnight frosts throughout the season. My investigation on the cold tolerance of the ‘Kangaroo Valley Rectory Rose’ appears consistent with the findings of Chapman et al in relation to R ‘G Nabonnand’ – ie the winter blooms of this rose are sublimely beautiful and stand up to a lot of rain and cold without spoiling. Their comparison of R ‘Jean Ducher’ with R ‘G Nabonnand’ suggest that R ‘G Nabonnand’ is a winter-tolerant Tea rose, whereas R ‘Jean Ducher’ does not tolerate the cold and the rain. They state “Early description of the two varieties collated by Dickerson (1992) indicate that ‘Jean Ducher’ was a globular lemon-to salmon-yellow Tea rose, flushed with pink or red in the centre, and that the very double flowers did not open well in wet weather.”
Based on Chapman et al’s comprehensive description and comparison of these roses, I am convinced that the ‘Kangaroo Valley Rectory Rose’ is in fact Rosa ‘G Nabonnand’. This rose was bred by Gilbert Nabonnand in France in 1888 and introduced in Australia by George Brunning of St Kilda Nurseries in 1897 as ‘G Nabonnand’.
Why the rose ‘G Nabonnand’ was selected to be grown in the gardens of the Kangaroo Valley Church of the Good Shepherd remains a mystery. What is more important is that, for the village of Kangaroo Valley, this beautiful rose has been saved from being lost forever. Its historical significance in the landscaping of historical buildings in the area will remain and can be enjoyed for a very long time; thank you Elaine and Ron. Long live the “Kangaroo Valley Rectory Rose”!
Intan Kallus
References:
- Chapman, Lynne, Drage, Noelene, Durston, Di, Jones, Jenny, Merrifield, Hillary, West, Billy (2008). Tea Roses; Old Roses for Warm Gardens.
- Web page Help Me Find Roses.
