Adelaide's Centennial Park has identified more than 7,000 roses and 140 different varieties within the 40 hectare cemetery. An excellent season has produced a brilliant spring rose display at Adelaide's Centennial Park. With more than 7,000 roses within the 40 hectare site, the state's largest cemetery has just completed an audit which has identified 140 different varieties and their exact location.

Centennial Park's Chief Executive Officer, Bryan Elliott, says when memorial gardens were first developed in the 1950s, ashes could be interred in either a niche wall or a rose garden.

He says as a result, a lot of rose gardens were created in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Mr Elliott says the winter rains have given the roses a real boost and produced one of the best displays in recent years.

He says a full audit has been completed of all the roses, including the number of each variety.

Mr Elliott says the register can now be used by Centennial Park staff to help families looking for a particular coloured rose and where they are located within the cemetery.

The audit also discovered two rose varieties that are no longer widely available in South Australia.

Granada is a Hybrid Tea rose with large double blooms in yellow, peach, red and pink.

Kordes Perfecta is also a Hybrid Tea featuring tall double flowers in rose pink.

Both roses were bred in the 1950s and 1960s. Another unusual rose within the cemetery is Tequila Sunrise, a Floribunda Bush rose, with yellow flushed red blooms. There are also many of the traditional favourites like Gold Bunny and Peace.

Centennial Park has more than 50 individually themed gardens including some new native memorial gardens.

Source: ABC News

 

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