Morning Tea to Officially Launch the Yellowish Scented Rose ‘Queensland Gold’

Ladies and gentlemen, it is Kaye’s and my great pleasure to welcome you all to Government House, especially if I may, President Mr Noel Prior, Curator of our wonderful Botanic Gardens Mr Dale Arvidsson, and Life Members Mrs Norma Klaassen and Mr Ross McKinnon.  Significantly here today for Government House Queensland, we have representatives of Garden Clubs from all over the south-east of the State, and we welcome you all.

The enthusiastic green thumbs and nurserymen and women before me today hardly need to be convinced of the wonderful benefits of the time-honoured pastime of gardening, especially on a misty morning like this.

Nor indeed do our Government House horticulturalists, who I think you will agree are especially adept at their vocation. Our Chief Mr Richard Symmonds is with us.  These experts appear to be able to merely walk past a plant to make it flourish!

Though I may be the Patron of the Queensland Council of Garden Clubs, I must report to you that my attempts result in less salubrious outcomes.

It nonetheless remains an enormous privilege for Kaye and me to be able to enjoy the meticulously maintained grounds of Fernberg, and to share the gardens, imbued as they are with rich historical and cultural tradition, with so many Queenslanders.

Today’s formalities launching the majestic Queensland Gold ‘Golden Anniversary Rose’ connect us with another fascinating tradition – that of naming roses.

It has been reported that there was an early attempt by the renowned Swedish botanist Carl Linnaues (pron. Linn-aye-us) to associate varieties with deserving scientists, leading to names like ‘rosa banksiae’, after the wife of Sir Joseph Banks.

As the number of cultivars flourished following advances in our knowledge of plant reproduction, the need for distinguishing names become ever more complex.

The French solution was to develop a penchant for naming rose varieties after notable women, and, for the male growers, after their wives.

As I have recently been reminded, there is as yet no ‘Kaye de Jersey’ variety.

However a similar practice has been adopted here at Fernberg, of having parts of the estate grounds named after the spouses of the sixteen Governors to have resided here since 1910.

And so last year I was very pleased to join Kaye in officially naming this very area of the Lower Lawn on which we gather today, the Mrs de Jersey ‘Rainforest Retreat’. It is surrounded by beautiful eucharis lilies descending from plants belonging to my maternal grandmother.

Each Governor also has a rose variety planted in their honour, and it is that Rockery that our proud Queensland Gold – so named in this golden anniversary year of the Queensland Council of Garden Clubs – will call home.

I congratulate the rose breeder Mr Paul Hains for his wonderful creation. 

I further commend the Queensland Council of Garden Clubs, and the Council’s constituent members, for their ongoing stewardship of botanical knowledge in our State, and for promoting a shared love of gardening.

It now gives me enormous pleasure to officially launch, in this significant 50th anniversary year, the ‘Queensland Gold’ rose, which I now unveil with Kaye. Thank you.