Heritage roses replaced at cemetery

HERITAGE roses are back at Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery after hundreds were poisoned two years ago.

About 500 roses, more than 40% of about 1200 at the cemetery including some memorial roses planted by families of those buried at the cemetery in the 1800s, were damaged in the 2016 incident.

It later emerged the roses had been sprayed with herbicide.

The Dunedin City Council conducted soil and foliage tests, but it was never conclusively proved who had done the spraying.

Council parks and recreation group manager Robert West said yesterday the damage had ‘‘upset a lot of people’’, so the council had worked with Heritage Roses Otago, and provided $2000 for the group to replace them.

Graves across the cemetery were yesterday sporting fresh woodchips and new plantings.

PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY A new leaf . . . Heritage roses have been replanted at Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery to replace those poisoned in 2016.