I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Mike and Jean for inviting me to come to Texas again and to be able to renew friendships that I made in 2002 while on my Churchill Fellowship. I was overwhelmed by the hospitality and friendship I was shown while in the States.

The Churchill Fellowship enabled me to travel to the USA, UK, Italy, France and Germany.

I will show you some of the roses in cemeteries in Australia, mainly South Australia as that is where I live and haunt cemeteries, and also a few of the overseas cemeteries in 2002.

You will only get a brief glimpse of the many cemeteries visited. But to be able to show you as many as possible in a limited time lets get moving.

 

 

 

When I think about cemetery roses one of the first cemeteries which comes to mind is Blakiston Cemetery which is in the Adelaide hills in South Australia. This cemetery was established in 1846 soon after South Australia was settled.

 

Here you will find many fine examples of the earlier roses such as the gallica Charles de Mills which covers many, many graves with its lusciously perfumed and very double flat topped maroon blooms.

I should correct that slightly and say that this cemetery used to have many fine examples, far more than those which remain today. With various caretakers who have imprinted their gardening practices we have come from a hauntingly enticing wild cemetery to one which has been tamed with the result that many roses have been lost from sprays or mowing.

A couple of roses which have been lost are these two Teas shown in this photo that was taken in the 1980’s. The large one in the foreground can be an apricot, soft pink, dark pink, cream – depends of the time of the year. It has the study name of  “Octavius Weld” after the doctor’s grave on whom it was growing. There was a smaller cream Tea but that one seems to have been lost. We are very lucky that the rose “Octavius Weld” is readily available commercially in Australia as early Heritage Rose members took cuttings and grew them on before the roses “walked” or whatever happened to them.

 

Another of the roses in Blakiston is this very prickly Centifolia or HP on the grave of Hugh John Childs who died in 1942.

 

This loss of old roses in cemeteries is not confined to only Blakiston as you can find it happening in most cemeteries in Australia as well as overseas.

 

A cemetery that has become my baby is the Mitcham Anglican Cemetery – here a group of us have planted examples of many of the found roses from other cemeteries, roadsides and old gardens in South Australia. We call it the Mitcham Old Rose Repository.  Here is the rose which prompted me to adopt this cemetery. It is growing on the grave of Lewes Kell, his wife Elizabeth, daughters Mary, Katherine and ten year old Dorothy who was waving goodbye to visitors while holding a kerosene lamp which spilt. Lewes’ great granddaughter related how as a child she would visit the cemetery with her family on weekend outings and would pick a bloom from this rose. A close-up of this sempervirens rambler’s beautiful button eyes.

Across the hedge from this cemetery is the old section of the Council owned cemetery. This is the only older rose on the grave of Charles William Ellis who died in 1922. A soft lemon yellow, freesia scented, double, early HT with a balled centre which opens to reveal the boss of yellow stamens.

I go to Mitcham once a month for our working bees and this rose is nearly always in flower.

It also produces large orange-red hips with many seeds. Any suggestions as to a possible name are welcome.  This goes for many of the roses that I will show you.

This little miniature china rose is on the Ebenezer Cemetery grave of 10 month old Oswald Arthur Hampel who died in 1905. I have also found it in another cemetery in the Barossa Valley on two old graves which date back to the late 1886 and 1905.  I feel that it may have been one of the forerunners of the miniature roses.

 

This cemetery in the dry, hot, wheat growing mid north of South Australia has 8 old roses. This red China rose I feel may be Cramoisi Superieur, from 1834, is found on two graves from 1875 and 1882. The trunks are massive and the bushes are nearly always in flower. The caretakers used to prune with a chainsaw before I came on the scene.

 

There is one large fine example of Parsons’ Pink China / Old Blush, that was introduced to Europe from China in 1793, on a grave of 1882.

 

Two bushes of possibly the Tea rose from 1838, Devoniensis on the graves of Catherine Molle who died in 1893 and Jochim Christian Brus who died in 1888.

 

And two bushes of this unknown white Tea with a very faint hint of pink, when first opening, on the graves of Maria Bruhn who died in 1891 and Johann Bruhn who died in 1893.

 

There is also a struggling rose on the Pluckham baby grave.

 

This suckering rose on the graves of children Wilhelm, Sophie, Louise, Edwin and Hilda Appelt, and the only other rose found in the Emmaus cemetery, plus a host of bulbs, have been sprayed into oblivion. Luckily I have these two roses growing in my own garden as I took slips years ago.

 

This is one of the reasons why our South Australian branch of Heritage roses applied for and were granted funding to create these brass plaques with the wording “Heritage Roses in Australia declare that the roses here are of a national treasure category. Please do not destroy. Supported by the South Australian Government through the History Trust of SA.” These plaques are presented to cemeteries which have historically and horticulturally significant roses as a means to try to stop this loss of plant treasures.

In Australia Rookwood and Gore Hill Cemeteries in Sydney New South Wales are the only examples of cemeteries where statutory protection under the NSW Heritage Act has enabled a Permanent Conservation Order to be place on the ornamental/symbolic plantings with particular emphasis on the old rose plantings in the oldest sections of these cemeteries. This was achieved in 1986 through the joint efforts of the National Trust and the Heritage Trust of NSW.

Here you see a little of the 777 acres near the centre of Sydney that Rookwood covers. This cemetery has at least a hundred different old roses scattered throughout the cemetery. Some have been named by many are still unknowns. One means that was adopted to help to save those roses which are threatened on their gravesites is by propagation and growing them in this Long Garden. This has enabled some to be saved but there is still the problem of lack of awareness, whipper snippers, lack of water and the age of many of the roses.

 

Now let us leave Australia and arrive in California. Mel of the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden was my kind host who drove me here, there and everywhere while I was in the San Jose area and north of San Francisco.

 

One of the finest examples of a Californian Cemetery with many old roses is San Juan Bautista Old Cemetery District south of San Jose on the old El Camino Real which is the highway that connected all of the Californian missions and later served as one of California’s major stage and wagon roads. The mission here was established in 1797.

Here you see a true rose tree growing in the highest part of the cemetery and here is a close up – Devoniensis. One of the all time favourite roses worldwide and found in many old gardens and cemeteries.

 

This rose is on the grave of Pauline Meza who died in 1948.

 

And another lovely old rose on an unmarked grave.

There are at least 30 old roses here with Cecile Brunner being the most often found rose in San Juan Bautista cemetery and town gardens.

 

While this town has a walking tour available of the old buildings it does not  include the old roses in the cemetery and in the town. At a house called The Alameda, just leaving the town you will see the largest, most incredible bush of the Californian Nursery Company 1906 bred Tea rose Niles Cochet.

 

Now we go to the Sacremento Old Cemetery – you are probably all aware of the fine work that Barbara Oliva and her helpers have done to make this a repository of old roses. I saw your “Caldwell Pink” here but this shows a found rose from the cliffs of Mendocino. I was impressed with their adopt a plot programme here where other societies have made many of the graves miniature gardens. Many of my Californian slides were washed out plus I lost a few rolls when I posted them home.

 

 

We now come to Oregon where I was hosted by Mirra Myer of the Oregon Pioneer Cemetery Commission.

Mirra was at the time in charge of a statewide survey of all the burial plots in Oregon prior to 1909.

The first cemetery visited on arrival in Oregon was Lone Fir Cemetery that is one of the oldest, very close to the heart of Portland City.

Here we saw the remnants of the remaining Pioneer Rose Garden which was one of three established by Mary Drain Albro who was the founder of the Pioneer Rose Society. In the late 1920’s Mrs Albro set out to find and rescue the surviving Oregon Trail roses. Mrs Albro was able to get first hand accounts from the pioneer families.

 

One such story involves a rose that is planted on the grave of Josephine in the Mountain View Cemetery.

Josephine’s family had moved to Oregon City in 1852 from the East but soon after came down with typhoid fever. A doctor who was a family friend came to give assistance, and with him he brought a rose from his garden in the hope that it would aid Josephine’s recovery. Sadly both Josephine and her brother died. The rose was planted by the grieving mother behind their grave. Every year this rose was mowed down until someone who cared started nurturing that rose. This is a fine example of someone taking that little bit of time to ensure the survival of a rose.

Mary Drain Albro was able to collect at least 24 roses which she believed dated back to being brought to Oregon via the Oregon Trail or having been grown by the early settlers. I saw many of these roses marking the graves of early settlers.

A book which is worth obtaining is Hatchet, Hands & Hoe - Planting the Pioneer Spirit by Erica Calkins.

Here you will read more about Mary Drain Albro and the roses and plants of the early Oregon pioneers. 

 

Here you see one of these roses, The Old Cardinal at the Aurora Cemetery on the grave of Lucinda Olfer who died in 1862. Lovely rose isn’t it. It is one of the proliferators with a green eye sometimes.

 

At the Aurora Cemetery there was a small number of these white bronze monuments which have lasted so well with their fine craftsmanship. This one marks the grave of Albertina Webert who was only 3 when she died in 1869. The reverse of the monument had a resting lamb on it.

Spray was used extensively in this cemetery to control weeds.

 

Salem Pioneer Cemetery is another of the many Oregon cemeteries which has a number of old roses.

It was raining on this day and we only had a short time here but this rose on JWS Smith who died in 1873 was a beauty and here is a close-up.

 

This is The Old Cardinal seen again in the Salem Cemetery.

 

These roses were growing at the head of the McNerney plot and again a close-up to show their glorious colour. They look as though they have Gloire des Rosomanes in their background.

Fred Boutin has said that there are roses in this cemetery that don’t appear to be anywhere else.

The roses I saw in Oregon were all so healthy and were seen at their best in their early stages of spring flowering.

I also need to say that I did not have any contact with any Heritage rose members while in Oregon.

The only cemetery that we visited that seemed to be tended by a Heritage rose group was Lake Oswega Pioneer Cemetery where there was a weldmesh boundary fence covered with old climbers and a number of the graves had been made into miniature gardens with roses, iris, aquilegia and other small plantings, and on one of the graves which was topped with stones was a nest made by a pair of Kildeer birds.

 

Following Salem we went to Eugene Mulkey Cemetery which is looked after by Kay Holbo whose house backs onto this cemetery. This cemetery has masses of bulbs, annual wildflowers and of course old roses.

This hilltop cemetery is fairly open and the grass is mowed and the wildflowers left to self seed.

 

Here is another rose tree – a thornless white which I thought may be Madame Alfred Carriere.

 

And here again a dark red with china in the background.

 

And of course one of your most famous roses – Rosa harisonii – one of the Oregon Trail roses.

 

Not far from this cemetery we visited the Eugene Masonic Cemetery which was completely different.

Again located on the summit of a hill but this one had many very tall trees which shaded most of the areas in this cemetery. A Landscape Management Plan has been implemented here with many areas identified such as the wet, the meadow, the pioneer, the wild and the wilder zones.

Each is cared for in a different way. This is again a working cemetery with areas for ashes to be scattered, areas where the native plants such as Aquilegia and Liliums are allowed to self seed, areas that only get mowed after seeds have dispersed but other areas that are kept trimmed and burials are allowed.

 

Here you see David who is one of the caretakers with the 1890 HT Madame Caroline Testout in the foreground – the most commonly encountered old rose seen in Oregon as in the early 1900 thousands of this rose variety were planted in and around Portland.

 

A light pink oldie hiding in the long grass, a white HP– Frau Karl Druschki? Again enjoying the company of long grass, and this mid pink double arching its stems at the corner of this grave. They all looked so happy didn’t they in their wild situation.

This cemetery also has an old, very interesting mausoleum that is being repaired.

 

Apart from the cemeteries already mentioned in Oregon, also include Columban Cemetery in Portland, and Belle Passi Cemetery if you ever get to Oregon.

We only had a few days so we did not venture very far from Portland but I’m sure there would be many more examples of cemeteries with old plantings if you traveled further afield.

 

And now we come to New Jersey where I was met by Stephen and shown a few of the rose sights of his part of the country.

The highlight for me was visiting Easton Heights Cemetery which is a wonderful example of a garden cemetery developed in the late 1880’s and sympathetically cared for over the years. This is the cemetery where Reverend Douglas Seidel and the late Leonie Bell, both well known east coast Heritage roses members, have been involved.

All the roses were clearly labeled with their name.

 

This rose was labeled “Seven Sisters Major”. A very interesting rose with its colour hues and an interesting name.

 

Here we see Madame Hardy an Alba from before 1844, Leda a damask from from 1831, Madame Plantier a Hybrid Noisette from 1835and this unnamed dark pink HP.

 

Stunning roses framing and softening the hard lines of a cemetery. This cemetery had a real park like atmosphere with the mature oaks, maples, cornus, rhododendrons, and the magnificant paeonies, hostas and old roses.

Here we also saw an area away from the main cemetery where a sample of each of the mother roses had been planted. I feel this was done as an insurance policy against the loss of the mother plant.

 

And now we head further east. I did not visit any cemeteries in Italy so I can not show you any examples there – you can not see much from a fast train. I did try to capture a glimpse of any I did see in Italy, France and Germany as we hurtled past – sometimes successfully but more often a blur.

 

While in south west France I stayed with Nigel Service who is an authority on forms of Iris germanica.

Nigel picked me up from the Souillac railway station and over 3 days Nigel drove me to 13 cemeteries – not bad for an iris lover. All cemeteries were enclosed with stone walls and a  number had roses but often it was hard to tell their ages. All cemeteries were well kept  with evidence of sprays used to control the grass near the bases of graves.

 

Here we see in Rignac Cemetery a soft pink double moss with a button eye.

 

While this next cemetery did not have roses its position was remarkable. Gluges is on a hillside over looking a large river plain. The church is built into the cliff and the graves are on a small area of level ground between the cliff and the town.

There is a notice on the Church door which says that Piaf had a relationship with the priest here.

 

At Creysse Cemetery you can see the telltale sign of weed killer  but this was a lovely old double alba – and a close up.

On the other side of the usual stone wall surrounding the cemetery there were walnut groves.

Property owners are given incentives to plant walnut trees. Geese are another farming pursuit in this part of France.

Here is a view over Cazoules on the left and Le Roc on the right – this was similar to the view from Gluges.

 This is Le Roc Cemetery showing Nigel looking at some old iris and you can see again the use of herbicide. At least the grass or in some places thyme, the herb, had been left to naturalise and create a green cover.

Souillac is famous for this Abbey which is 800 years old. To the left but out of the picture is the building where the monks live.

In the Souilliac Cemetery one of the roses seen was this lovely cupped rambler and a close-up. There were about a dozen roses in this cemetery.

You can see in this cemetery in Julien-de-Lampon that this Old Monthly/ Parsons Pink was pretty spindly and needed a good clean up to remove masses of dead wood. There was one other rose in this particular cemetery.

 

Carlux Cemetery and on the Champeau grave one of the many different wichurana ramblers that you come across in Europe. And a close-up. I was struck by the great number of different wichurana and multiflora ramblers that I saw on my travels in Europe. They are so popular over there. In Australia we don’t seem to grow very many at all.

 Now I have taken leave of Nigel, caught the fast train to Orleans but was given the wrong advice and had hopped off the train a station earlier and had to get back on the train and continue on to Orleans. When you travel alone with too much luggage you realise that many of the European stations only have stairs, and some of those stairs were so steep and seemed so many.

Pithiviers is south of Paris and here I saw Andre Eve’s Nursery and he showed me his home garden but we are talking cemeteries. With a few hours to spare before the bus back to Orleans was due to leave I found the cemetery and went for a wander. There were only a couple of new roses, an older looking variety with green hips setting and this yellow climber. This cemetery was again walled and had gravel between all the graves but it did have a lovely tree lined avenue leading up to it.

Arriving in Paris which I loved and felt completely safe by myself in, I experienced the underground system for the first time when I plotted my way to Le Pere Lachaise cemetery. Here I had only print film in the camera so I have not any slides to show you but I have a few of the prints of the most remarkable graves that I saw with me if you would like to see them. This cemetery is enormous and I did not see as much as I would have liked of it but I did find Piaf’s grave and saw where James Taylor is buried. There were a few older looking roses on graves tucked away but most of the graves did not lend their hand to having roses growing on them. If you are ever lucky enough to visit Pere Lachaise buy a map of the cemetery which shows the sites of significant graves before you enter the cemetery – so much easier than looking at a notice board and trying to remember the directions. Here I experienced the hole in the ground loos for the first time and I suggest they check their flushing system as I was splashed when I flushed it – maybe there is a secret to doing it right – possibly getting right out of the way before pulling the chain.

While in Ireland I stayed with a local friend’s mother whose garden at Bray I will show you tomorrow but I did get to see the Glasnevin Cemetery as I had found a B&B which happened to be close to this cemetery for the final night I was in Ireland before catching an early flight the next morning. In dull drizzling rain at 4.30pm I ventured to this cemetery which backs onto the Glasnevin Botanic Garden which I had visited the day before.

This is the front fence of this cemetery and the other fences were 10ft stone walls without a foothold. The double entrance gates were padlocked but the small side gate was open but it had the stoutest chain and lock draped around ready to be used. I did not see any notice board which may have listed the times of opening, so with trepidation, in the gathering evening gloom, that I might get locked in there for the night with little hope of scaling walls or fences I ventured hastily forth to search the cemetery for roses.

There were quite a number of roses which appeared to have been there for many years.

This rose which wasn’t far from the entrance was on a grave on which the marker said “ In memory of the Redmond family”. Seems to have china or tea in its background as seen in this close-up.

These two roses were on an unmarked grave and here are close-ups of the flowers.

 

This was about the time that I happened to look up and see a group of girls standing at a grave close by. It gave me a hell of a fright as I hadn’t heard their approach. I did not see them leave as I hastened on – through one of the darkest gloomiest areas shaded by old gnarled trees.

As the rear grey stonewall and corner turreted tower came into sight I decided I had ventured far enough into the back reaches of the cemetery, plus the dread of being locked in was mounting, I set forth to find the entrance again.

 

Here is another of the old roses on the grave of Mary Gilligan and a close-up of the balling blooms.

 

By this time it was drizzling harder and it was getting darker. With most profound relief I found the entrance gate and saw that it was still open.

 

Later that evening I heard from the B&B owner that a girl had come to grief in the cemetery sometime in the past.

 

On the last day I had in England I drove back alone from visiting Peter Beales nursery.

I wanted to visit Brookwood Cemetery on which Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney is styled. It wasn’t far from Heathrow so after plotting my way using postit paper slips I first came upon the Commonwealth War Graves part of Brookwood. Here there is a high wire fence surrounding the cemetery to keep out deer and rabbits. The entrance gates needs to be opened and closed as you drive in and out.

This cemetery is immaculately kept with plantings between the crosses in rows as you can see on the left of the photo. Over the fence to the rear you could see the old Brookwood Cemetery but to get there you have to retrace your steps and drive around to another entrance.

 

This shows the overall feel of this cemetery.

 

Surrounded by high stone walls and occupying each side of a main road you could drive through at leisure on some roads which were sealed - but most roads were unsealed. There is a railway station nearby in case you ever visit and have not hired a car.

This statue of a young girl with a rose was one of the only sorts of roses that you can find here. There were a few graves which were fenced and covered with chicken wire to deter animals.

 

I had two weeks at Europa Rosarium in Sangerhausen in Germany and I searched out their cemetery or Friedhof as it is known in German.

Here was a cemetery with mature trees lining the centre avenue but the graves were remarkable in that they were all so well tended. There were taps at intervals and watering cans supplied so that each of the graves which had been made into a miniature garden could be watered. There was evidence that people would rake graves, would visit regularly and pride was taken in the state of the cemetery.

 

The only two roses which I felt may have been there a long time were this Centifolia and this semi double dark pink which covered an old grave.

 

And so if you visit a cemetery, and I did see a few of the Texas cemeteries while I was here last time, and see roses which are surviving please give them a bit of a hand by removing deadwood and maybe a sprinkling of fertilizer. You could also approach the cemetery caretakers and gently point out that the roses are horticultural and heritage treasures which are tangible links to our past and as such should be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations. Or one day the only roses which you may find in a cemetery is a carved rose on a monument or this “souvenir” – while they are very beautiful they will never replace a living rose which has been planted with love on the grave of a family member.

 

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Text and photos © Pat Toolan   .