I went around the roses here today (11 October 2015). Among the Clark roses are Zara Hore-Ruthven, Restless, Sunny South and Lady Mann: these are all well grown in display beds and labelled. Squatter's Dream is in a display bed and labelled, but pruned down to low Hybrid Tea level, quite inappropriate for a Hybrid Gigantea which reaches 2 m. Then there are the remains of a magnificent row of Gladsome, now completely without flowers because of bad sunlight and harsh pruning; unlabelled. Almost as bad is a solitary stem of Golden Vision growing without any support let alone the pergola it needs; unlabelled. On the gazebo, a superb and well grown Nancy Hayward, possibly labelled. Around on the shady side an old plant of Blackboy which has never done well there; unlabelled. I saw one plant, labelled, of Cicely Lascelles. Courier is on the published list but I couldn't recognise it. Finally on the west side of the rose garden, supported on a wire but overcrowded and underfed, what looked like Mrs Richard Turnbull, with one flower; unlabelled.
Some good news and some not so good news there. Happy face; sad face; happy face; sad face reading it. Last week we visited a garden in Northam that had a good collection of large, healthy and beautifully grown Alister Clark roses. It was such a pleasure to see them looking so good and given time and room to develop to their potential.
"Squatter's Dream is in a display bed and labelled, but pruned down to low Hybrid Tea level, quite inappropriate for a Hybrid Gigantea which reaches 2 m."
Eric, all the references indicate that Squatter's Dream only gets to about 1.3 metres tall. Have you seen it get to 2 metres?
The garden is in the St Kilda Botanic Garden is open - sunrise to sunset daily. [However they do not seem to lock the gates at night - but I am fearful of going in after dark because of teh activities of some of St Kilda's denizens.]
They certainly seem to have more than 9 plants - I have emailed the Port Phillip Council's parks and maintenance division, but they haven't responded yet. The Friends of the St Kilda Botanic garden may also be able to help - but I haven't contacted them yet.
HelpMeFind is an interactive site. We always welcome having a representative update the HMF listings but often that's not the case and we learn details in drib and drabs.
The St Kilda rose garden is still flourishing in 2008, but the number of Alister Clark roses there is dwindling. There are perhaps two climbers and six bushes left, all unlabelled. The gardeners seem to be replacing the Clark roses with David Austin ones. Many beds have popular favorites by neither. Still, there is now an Alister Clark Rose Garden in the township of Bulla north of Melbourne where most of his roses were bred. It's on the highway next to the old bluestone shire hall, and it has a superb collection of his roses (about 70), beautifully maintained and presented, and very well labelled.
Patricia, many thanks. The long extract from the journal is illuminating, and I remember the high intentions expressed at the time the St Kilda Garden was opened. Unfortunately it has since fallen away steeply from the original aims. It is foolish to have two Alister Clark Memorial Gardens within forty miles of one another, especially as one of them has all the available Clark roses and the other has about six. I'll try to get on to that St Kilda curator and see if she's still there.
