Posts Tagged ‘horse racing’

• Melbourne Cup…Horses…and Roses!

  Date: 2008.11.04 | Category: home, Horticulture | Response: 2

  Today was Melbourne Cup day. The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s biggest annual horse race. It is quite literally ‘The race that stops a nation.’ Many people will have a bet or wager on the Cup, even when they are not normally the gambling type. It’s a bit like people who don’t usually garden but when Spring time rolls around, they just have to grow a tomato!

  Anyway, I checked out the race guide and picked my horse out early in the day. I planned to drive into town, go and do the groceries and a few errands with my 3 y.o son in tow. I then thought I would go and place the bet on and grab a bottle of champagne.(just in case)…but alas, all did not go to plan. I ended up back at home without placing my bet and sat down with my family to watch the race. You know what I’m going to say, don’t you??? Yes, the horse I had picked, Viewed, won the race! Aaaargh!

  So feeling a bit sorry for myself, calculating the money I could have won, I decided to take a walk around the garden.

  

  Pierre De Ronsard

  The Melbourne Cup is also famous for the stunning rose gardens at the racecourse in Flemington. The race course has around 12, 000 roses on site and during the Spring racing carnival they are all out in bloom. There is even a rose named “Fosters Melbourne Cup.”

  

  Margaret Merril

  Apparently they have over 200 varieties of roses and a dedicated team of gardeners who make sure they are in top condition. We had some rain( just lovely) early in the week and I wondered how much havoc it played with mildews, etc. Anyway, watching the horses in the winners circle today, I must say the roses looked superb. One of the roses that was flowering along the fences looked a lot like Crepescule.

  

  Crepescule

  A beautiful rose with a sprawling habit and a prolific bloomer. This one is growing on the post and rail fence behind my mothers place.

  Well the roses certainly cheered me up and made me smile. You know I am usually not so much of a fan of roses. I have had to prune my fair share of them in the past and they can be nasty…you know, with those big fat thorns! But in the Spring and through the Summer, their exquisite perfume and delicate blooms are a sight to behold.

  

  Lilli Marlene

  Maybe next year I will be able to toast the roses with a nice bottle of French bubbly! Here’s hoping.