A blooming delight to see in Emmarentia
The Gold Reef Rose Society recently spent an afternoon planting new rose bushes at Johannesburg Botanical Gardens.
If you have been to the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens lately and took in the glorious scent of newly planted roses, you should thank the Gold Reef Rose Society who spent one afternoon planting rose bushes.
Through their ‘Let’s make it bloom again’ campaign, the society planted 38 sponsored ‘grannies’ – Granny Dearest, Granny Delight and My Granny rose bushes, which were all specifically planted at the rose garden. Barbara Wood, the society’s chairperson, thinks these types of roses look absolutely lovely side-by-side. “We are slowly going to plant up the empty rose beds once we get more donations from the wider public.”
The society adopted a central area of one of the eight terraces found at the gardens. To prepare for the planting, City Parks and Zoo volunteers who got the soil ready by treating it with planting mix and compost also helped with the planting on the day. The idea to adopt this area came to Wood when she and some society members held a pruning day at the venue late winter. It was then she not only noticed an empty flower bed but loved its circular structure too. Unlike other rose beds, this one was within reach as it needed about 26 rose bushes. Others are quite large in size and need 125 to 150 rose bushes, which would need quite a lot of sponsorship.
This is their first planting of the year and hopefully, by year’s end, they will have finished the garden’s bottom terrace. By mid-November, they hope to have managed to fill this terrace, which has stairs on either side of the pond, with enough sponsored rose bushes to fill those beds. “This is an ongoing project where we would really like to see companies and schools get involved,” Wood said.
She appeals to the community to get involved with social responsibility like this one as it is very important. “If everybody just plays their small part we can really get things going again.” She said that although there are some awesome volunteers from City Parks, the entity does not have money.
One of the society’s members, Carol, said this campaign, as well as the planting days to follow, really excited her. “I love roses and I also live in the area. The Emmarentia rose garden has always been very special. With people coming here to take pictures for their weddings they are viewed by many.”
A sweet end to the day came by way of a picnic shared among all the members present.
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