Wellington
It has been suggested that roses planted by the graves at Bolton St Cemetery were meant to help keep grazing cattle away from the interred.
Ruth Barnard meets the greenthumbs volunteering at a historic cemetery.
However, these early plantings of roses and trees such as the Selwyn oak, holly and yew perhaps also reveal a romantic nostalgia for the “motherland”. Among the collection of 208 heritage roses in the cemetery are a few planted by early settlers. Together with wildflowers, they live amongst burials that date as far back as 1840, when the early settlement of Wellington began.
Collectively, the recorded burials and gravestones paint a picture of the common hardships of life in the 1800s to early
1900s, stemming from poor sanitation to racial repression. Headstones are a sad reminder of the high infant mortality rate and death from childbirth and consumption as well. The site was closed as a functioning cemetery in 1892 due to health concerns connected with overcrowding and the proximity of the burial plots to the city.
Today, this inner city cemetery leads you away from the clatter of city life and eventually into the Wellington Botanical Gardens. If you walk slowly, you will hear the gentle buzz of a bumblebee, the scuffle of blackbirds and if you are lucky, the chatter of ka¯ka¯.
The cemetery is part of the councilowned Wellington Gardens, which work alongside the Heritage Rose Society and volunteer group Friends of Bolton Street Cemetery (commonly referred to as simply The Friends) to care for the site.
Famous heritage roses here include the Lady Banks’ rose and the Harris rose.
The former, named after the wife of the renowned botanist and naturalist
Sir Joseph Banks, is said to be one of the oldest roses in the garden here.
The Harris rose is named after Sophia Harris, who had brought cuttings of Rosa
multiflora ‘Carnea’ from England. Sophia and her family arrived in Wellington on the ship Bolton in 1840, apparently having kept the cutting alive on the long arduous journey by planting it in a potato. They settled in Hutt Valley and Sophia planted the hardy survivor there.
An official planting ceremony of two large Harris roses took place at the Bolton Street entrance to the cemetery in 2014. (And yes, both the street and cemetery are named after the ship that Sophia Harris and the rose arrived here on.)
Gardeners who join The Friends fall into three broad categories, says membership secretary Kate Fortune.
“People who have ancestors buried in the cemetery are a significant part of our membership – and that includes me,” she explains. “People who live in the neighbourhood are another large group of our membership. The third group are wonderful people who love to learn about and support Wellington heritage, wherever they live. Usually it begins with a casual visit, perhaps tacked on to visiting the Botanic Gardens.
“In one recent example, a lovely man decided that he’d like to ‘adopt’ a headstone to look after and keep clean. He came to us to ask about it and find out what treatment we recommended – a little good quality neutral detergent and a soft scrubbing brush is the answer,” she adds. “Another loyal member who comes to every working bee lives more than 20km away. She says she loves reading the headstones and thinking about the lives of the people who have ended up there.”
The Friends hold working bees all year round, but aim to have at least four sessions through the summer, usually on Sunday mornings. Jobs include weeding inside graves, picking up rubbish and scrubbing headstones. Council gardeners are always consulted about their priorities for the space as well.
Karl Bale belongs to the second group of volunteers; along with his late wife Judy, he became involved to contribute to his neighbourhood and community. Karl is especially passionate about the heritage rose collection. “I am delighted to live in this part of historic Wellington and it is a privilege to be able to give a little time and effort into preserving our history,” he explains.
“My wife was a strong supporter of the Friends for 20 years before her death and I want to contribute to something that was so important to her.”
The Friends of Bolton Street Cemetery sometimes run tours and special guided tours are available by arrangement through the Treehouse Visitor Centre.