Lorjon Rose Day
November 13th
10:30am to 5pm
Entry to garden: $5.00pp includes morning or afternoon tea
BBq lunch available for $12.00pp
Our garden started in 1968 when we felled the 100 year old Radiata pines that
were dropping branches on the house when it snowed. Native plants were hard to come by so we put
camellias in for the honeyeaters, buddleia for the butterflies and anything I
cou
ld get from friends, and of course the roses. I don't know when it got so out of hand, It's too big, there was never enough water
and always plenty of pruning to be done but I was not giving up on any of it. We first opend the garden in 1979 in November but changed to September in 1993
to start the Rydal Daffodil Weekend to raise money for the local charities. In 2003 we opened for the roses in November to raise money to keep St Matthew's
Church in good repair. We have made many friends and had a lot of fun sharing the garden. The doorknob on
the toilet door was donated by a lady who, having kept it for years, it came from the
front door of the house she lived in as a little girl, felt it "belonged there". The birch grove was a gift for our 25th wedding anniversary; John and our son Ben gave
me the summerhouse for my 12th birthday (February 29th) , and John gave me the
fountain for my 16th birthday. The dahlias came from friends in Portland and we have
some white violets that came from Scotland in the 1830's. A friend has her ashes scattered here and John and I will be put in the chained
section, consecrated by the late Fr. We have five cats, two sisters 16 years old given to us by Barbara Waters, Little Kit and
Cuddles. Angus (10years), Nedd Kelly (4years) and Izzy (6years) are all a large
breed of cat called Maine C**n. Nedd and Izzy were both rescued by the RSPCA
in very bad condition and adopted by us. Lockie (11years) and Opal (8years) are our gentle giants, Clydsdales. We have planted many trees, cut heaps down, lost lots in droughts, lots more in the
freezing winter when temperatures were -13 degrees celsius. We don't use sprays and we
water with the gray water. We enjoy our garden and we hope you will to
Lorraine & John Stack
