With over 5000 roses, the Victoria State Rose Garden is one of the tourist gems of Victoria. Originally hidden behind a screen of trees from the carpark of the Mansion at Werribee Park, it occupies about five hectares. It was awarded the International Garden of Excellence by the World Federation Of Rose Societies in 2003, the first rose garden outside Europe to receive this Award and the only one at that time cared for by volunteers.
In plan, the design presents a stylised rose, with the traditional five-petalled Tudor Rose containing beds of HT and Floribunda roses forming the largest display area at the northern end of the site. Pathways act as a rose “stem”, leading from the Tudor Rose petals, to a “leaf” and a “rosebud”
The ‘leaf’, called the Federation Leaf, was planted to commemorate the Centenary of Federation. It contains beds of Australian roses bred over the period of Federation. The “rosebud” is planted with English Roses bred by David Austin.
Around the outer edge of the Tudor Rose are planted festoons of climbing and rambling roses, interspersed with tall weeping standards. A row of standard roses and an archway of climbing roses separate each petal.
Two sides of the outer border, are planted with Old or Heritage Roses, so that visitors can see the origins of the modern rose.
The Tudor Rose
The main Garden is in the shape of a formal Tudor Rose. It is in an artificial bowl, created by the Civilian Engineering Exhibition in 1982.
The centre boss is a gazebo surrounded by standards and bush modern roses. Modern roses are Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses
Radiating outward are five avenues of standard modern roses, each leading to an arch covered in climbing roses. The avenues define the five formal petals of the Tudor Rose. Each petal contains twenty-five beds of modern roses and eleven tripods containing pillar roses.
Around the outer edge of each petal are eighteen posts with chain and wire between them, containing rambling and climbing roses, which are trained to create festoons or swages. Interspersed with the festoons are twenty weeping standards giving height to the outer edge.
