It is with sadness I advise that Peter Cox died on the 16th June 2018.
Members of the VSRGS first met Peter Cox in 1999 at Phillip Sutherland’s nursery Goldenvale, Benalla when Peter was launching his book “Australian Roses”.
This was the first ever attempt at producing a list of these roses and Peter put enormous effort into it. Of course, like any such book, it was out of date as soon as the ink was dry but this does not take away this valuable resource.
Peter was a twin and born a pom. Engineer by profession he came to Australia in 1965, working at Port Kembla. He became a dairy farmer and part time gardener and then moved to Thirdmere in NSW to start a nursery.
Peter and his wife Kate ran the nursery, specializing in species roses before switching to Australian roses. Like many of us he became hooked on heritage roses and at one stage was Co-President of Heritage Roses in Australia. He was also an amateur artist.
When it was proposed that NSW HRiA run the 1995 Conference at Orange, Peter volunteered to grow in pots a plant of each species rose available in Australia. These were to be displayed at the conference venue. As it was most unlikely that they would all be in flower for the three days of the Conference, Peter volunteered to produce botanical paintings of each of the roses. Successfully, each potted rose had the painting alongside it at the conference.
At the end of the conference plants and paintings were donated to the Orange Botanic Gardens. The 56 paintings are reproduced in Peter’s book “Species Roses”.
Peter Cox died at the age of 92, but his legacy will live on.
Our condolences go to his wife, Kate, and their family.
Wal J Jun 2018
