Article (newspaper)  (Feb 2010)  Page(s) 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Patricia Routley: I’m so excited. Over in Nannup there used to grow two massive old tea roses. I believe they were ‘Mme. Lambard’ 1877 and ‘Lady Roberts’ 1902 (or is it ‘Anna Olivier’ 1872) and they were growing on the side of the road just north of the bridge. They were very well known and cruising past slowly just wasn’t an option on the curved approach to the bridge, so we used to stop and walk back to look at these lovely things more closely. Here is some background from Joe Twiss, Nannup, on these two roses. “James Kearney came out in 1869 from McCroom in County Cork, Ireland as a political prisoner and was housed in the Warder’s House at Nannup. Later, James married Kathryn and they lived in and re-named the Warder’s House, McCroom. Their son, Thomas, was born there in 1879. James Kearney was a cobbler who used to service the south west on horseback. McCroom was mostly washed away with the floods of 1955. James’ son, Thomas, later built ‘Old Templemore’ on the other side of the river. The remnants of the old building ‘McCroom’ are still there and the roses next to the road are possibly part of Kathryn’s garden”. Obviously I took cuttings. I loved those big teas so much, that in 2000 I wrote to the Nannup Shire Council asking them to preserve the two old teas by the Nannup Bridge. I received a polite but non-committal reply. Unfortunately, the roses are only just inside the fence of a private property and during the last five years, the pink ‘Mme. Lambard’ was severely sprayed to control the Morning Glory creeper that was out of control. It did not survive. The ‘Lady Roberts’ did and is still doing very well indeed for such an old rose. In April, 2007 I saw this rose again and it was a beautiful sight, and even the deadly blue Morning Glory vine threading its way through and flowering at the same time was forgiven, temporarily! To top off the picture, there were white blooms in amongst the yellow. I had never seen the white before and thought perhaps it was the weather, or a lack of some nutrient. Last October 25, I stopped by again. There were the white flowers and I took one cutting that was showing a white bloom. I was able to see roots on this one cutting on November 23, and it is now producing its first flower. And yes!! It is white. In the bud stage, it has a basal colouring of yellow, but opens to white. Temporarily I have put a study name of “Blanche Roberts” on it, but I am wondering if it could be the white, lemon centered ‘Mrs. Stephen Treseder’ resurfacing again. That was an 1889 sport of ‘Anna Olivier’ which has disappeared from commerce.