THE Portland Botanic Gardens can fairly be described as one of the jewels in the city\u2019s crown, and a recent donation has added a bit more sparkle \u2013 not to mention a lot more colour.<\/p>\n
Treloar Roses, the Bolwarra-based business which is Australia\u2019s largest rose grower, has donated about 100 roses to the Botanic Gardens, a gift which will supercharge plans to develop the rose displays.<\/p>\n
The roses, which are largely pink or lighter colours, will provide a spectacular backdrop for an area already popular for wedding photography and which is undergoing an overhaul, with a new arbour planned.<\/p>\n
The donation followed thefts from the rose garden last year then vandalism of the greenhouse and the prized dahlias earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Those setbacks promised to further delay the plans for the rose garden, until Treloar Roses stepped up to the plate.<\/p>\n
Treloar Roses co-director Elton Treloar said office manager Kate Treloar suggested the donation after hearing about the vandalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had these (surplus) roses sitting in our greenhouse and this was a much better use for them,\u201d Mr Treloar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonating them was a win-win, it\u2019s great that they\u2019re able to be used (at the Botanic Garden).<\/p>\n
\u201cShowing off these roses is very important to us as well and it\u2019s good to have fresh stock in here because after 20-30 years roses will become a bit tired.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was echoed by Council Senior Horticulturalist Adam May, who thanked Treloar Roses for the donation and said it also enabled ratepayers\u2019 funds to be spent on much-needed infrastructure in the gardens rather than replacing stock.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge boon for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of planning that goes into a garden like this is staggering.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe colours are great \u2013 we wanted to create some bulk colour palettes with this area becoming a bit of a feature and the donation just fell in well with our plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would\u2019ve been two years behind with our plans after the thefts and vandalism but now we\u2019re probably a year ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can put the money into infrastructure instead so rather than manual watering we can go fully automated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will look really stunning and next year\u2019s display should be spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE Portland Botanic Gardens can fairly be described as one of the jewels in the city\u2019s crown, and a recent donation has added a bit more sparkle \u2013 not to mention a lot more colour. Treloar Roses, the Bolwarra-based business which is Australia\u2019s largest rose grower, has donated about 100 roses to the Botanic Gardens, […]<\/p>\n