Palace Rose Garden

The Palace Rose Garden contains around 1800 roses and provides visitors with a range of experiences. Traditional design elements, such as hedges and perennials, are used in conjunction with standard, weeping and bush roses. Roses with striking, bold colours are planted in an exciting and diverse range of bed shapes and sizes. The air is filled with a sense of romance, which only a combination of red, pink and white roses can provide.

This new Garden is set in part of the old Palace Gardens, site of the massive Garden Palace that was built to house the Great International Exhibition of 1879-80, and which was totally destroyed by fire in 1882.

The Palace Rose Garden (opened 28 November 2006) was designed and planted by staff of the Botanic Gardens Trust. Some of the surrounding garden beds contain plants related to roses, members of the order Rosales, in a continuation of the rose theme. The Pavilion (1897), constructed of Port Jackson sandstone, was designed by Walter Vernon, Government Architect.

Sustainability

One of the challenges of growing roses in Sydney is the high humidity, which encourages fungal diseases. Traditionally the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust relied on chemical fungicides to control fungal diseases. The Trust has now greatly reduced the use of chemicals and employs sustainable horticultural practices such as:

• Replacement of chemicals with biodegradable products such as bicarbonate of soda and organic oils
• Replacement of roses that display poor vigour and low pest and disease resistance
• Display of roses in a way that maximises airflow between plants and reduces the spread of fungal diseases
• Sterilisation of tools to minimise the spread of fungal diseases between individual plants
• Use of predatory insects and organisms to control pests and diseases
• Use of companion planting to assist in the control of pests and diseases
• Continued monitoring and development of soil drainage and structure
• Use of natural and organic fertilisers where possible.

Wedding venue

The Palace Rose Garden can be hired for weddings.

Support

The Palace Rose Garden was proudly funded by the Royal Botanic Gardens Foundation. The Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust would like to thank the many individuals and companies whose valuable contributions to the Foundation have made the construction of this garden possible. Special thanks are given to Mr Bruce Arnott for his generosity and enthusiasm.