Yvonne's Rose Garden is on the side of a hill in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. The climate is mediterranean (hot dry summer, cool wet winter), Zone 9. The garden was mapped out in 1990 and extra sections added each year. The total rose count reached 500 in 2000 -- there are 374 varieties with more added each year. They includie samples of most classes (species, old garden roses, moderns, and miniatures).
Yvonne starts to prune in July and fertilizes twice a year using a chemical and organic fertilizer, and a soluble fertilizer added to the fortnightly spray for black spot/mildew during the fungi season. She does not spray insecticides because of a lively population of predatory birds, reptiles, and insects.
Dead-heading is a daily occurrence snapping-off of at the abscission layer, rather than cutting with secateurs unless the stem is too prickly. A summer prune in late January promotes an autumn flush and saves blooms from the rather intense summer heat that would otherwise scald them.
The watering is maintained on a drip irrigation system, by slow 4-hourly deep watering with a rotation of 5 days throughout the late spring/summer until the break in the season which may occur from May til sometimes as late as July.
Yvonne's garden peaks in the third week of November, when a rose named
'Ferdy' covers itself with blooms. This rose acts as a hedge alongside a path in the upper section of the garden, and cascades down to a lower section alongside a little summer house.
