Rose grower honoured by NZ society
VAL Clarke has been growing roses for more than 40 years — and this year the Oamaru rosarian has been given national recognition for services to the rose in New Zealand.
The North Otago born and bred rose expert was honoured at the annual general meeting of the New Zealand Rose Society held in Christchurch earlier this year.
Mrs Clarke said she was surprised and honoured to be recognised at the national level.
She has been a member of the North Otago Rose Society since 1974 and her citation, provided to the Otago Daily Times this week, notes her success showing roses at a national level.
‘‘Val is a most successful exhibitor, a coach to new members and encouraging and helping any visitor who may turn up at a show with a bucket of roses,’’ it reads. ‘‘She has been convener, steward, secretary and judge.
‘‘Val is highly respected by all New Zealand Rosarians who appreciate her enthusiasm, knowledge, time and commitment to the rose growers across our country.’’
As roselovers ready for pruning this winter, Mrs Clarke said she saw two differing interests driving current trends in the rose world.
As gardens typically became smaller — and everyday people were finding less time to spend in them — there was a trend towards newer roses for the casual grower.
But at the same time as the expansive gardens of the past gave way to bulldozers, some in the rose world were making great efforts to save New Zealand’s heritage roses.
‘‘In general terms, and it really is general terms, people’s gardens tend to be smaller, and their time is more limited . . . so they look for something that is probably not so big and is ‘easy care’. The breeders are working hard at breeding roses that are disease resistant, more scent, and all those things people are looking for.
‘‘Or they are breeding shrubbier roses; shrubbier roses that are lowergrowing and have more unusual flowers. There’s persica ones. They breed them from the persica, so they’re single, but they have a dark eye. They might have a dark red eye and a pinker bloom — they’re a bit different from what people might envisage what a rose looks like, but they just keep on flowering and they make a really good show.’’
And as old gardens disappeared across the country ‘‘and the roses are lost’’ and because importing the flowers was more onerous now than it once was there was a growing trend among passionate rosarians to celebrate the less showy roses of old.
‘‘People realised that they were losing something that was actually precious — and a lot of them have gone. They would be in big old gardens — well, big old gardens don’t necessarily exist anymore,’’ she said.
Four rosarians were honoured with New Zealand Rose Society awards this year.
hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz