0 of 5
“Don’t think you can grow roses in this garden. I have tried and they just vrek.”
Advice to Debbie Johnson, a young farmer’s wife who heeded this voice at first and then began a careful self-conscious gamble in the soil by conservatively creating a fairy garden for her children beneath a pepper tree.
It wasn’t the challenge of proving an experienced voice wrong that inspired Johnson of Edendale Farm in the Fort Beaufort district to grow roses that had her embarking on the venture.
Through the years she was to garner a deep love of old roses that transcended this initial reluctance.
On encountering the same antique blooms depicted by the masters of old paintings one day, she planted her own rose garden. And later captured their beauty through the lens of her camera.
“Over time I must have absorbed the therapeutic loveliness that comes from being surrounded by gardens from a young age,” Johnson said.
“Growing up in the country, in the Tylden farming district between Queenstown [Komani] and Cathcart in the Eastern Cape where both my mother and grandmother had beautiful gardens, then those surrounding my schools, Balmoral Primary and Girls High School in Queenstown, I came to believe that surely everybody had beautiful gardens.
“On a subliminal level, I must have appreciated their beauty. Surely, they were essential and everybody had a garden?”
However, the experience of the grounds while attending tertiary education in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) told another tale.
“I began to miss the ever-present gardens in my life; to miss the beauty beyond their mere presence.”
On marrying the man of her dreams, Stephen Johnson — a farmer from the Fort Beaufort district — her new home was surrounded by a lovely garden tended through the years by her mother-in-law, despite the lack of nourishment in the soil and brackish water.
Her advice when she handed over its responsibility was not to try to grow roses.
Johnson was not tempted then to take up the challenge at that stage.
But she was haunted by the roses of yesteryear in the paintings studied in art at school.
“Those long-forgotten roses captured timelessly on canvas; those fat bosomy roses that lured and beguiled insects with their bewitching perfume. Overstaying so they were trapped in time warps by those artists — [Pierre-Joseph] Redouté and [Gerard] Van Spaendonck.”
Living in a rural community, Johnson found that as a farmer’s wife, she was always part of something. And Fort Beaufort is famous for its rose shows.
“These lovely ladies were formidable farmers’ wives who were unbelievably creative.”
She managed to avoid being involved in floral art, volunteering instead to design the programmes and paint the posters and tickets.
Then there was the year at a rose show when she was assigned to assist rosarian Barbara Long, 30 years her senior, in setting up the specimen board to display the old roses.
She welcomed the simple task of filling little coke bottles with water as “vases” for the rose specimens.
When Long began labelling and placing each select rose bloom in the bottle, Johnson knew at that moment her life had changed irrevocably.
“Their beauty captivated me, much like the beguiled insects, I was drawn to these beautiful roses I had believed were extinct.”
She was spellbound ... and kept saying, “I can’t believe they really exist”.
Today, Johnson has an established 1ha rose garden where she has more than 200 roses growing — the survivors of over 300 shrubs which perished in the drought.
“I made cuttings of those that were happy to stay.”
If she could choose just 10 favourites, they would be Bourbon Queen, Great Western, Blush Damask, Pink Cloud, Rosa Bracteata, Francoise Juranville, Alberic Barbier, Hiawathia, Cornelia and Rosa Russeliana.
“I am delighted by their unique characteristics, intoxicating scents and the poetry of the names of old roses.
“Their resilience and ability to thrive in poor soil and challenging conditions is fascinating.”
Because old roses only flower in spring, and a few in autumn, you need to assign to them their place in the garden as “backup singers”.
That is, against fences for support and towards the back of beds so there is year-round interest.
Perennials herbs, agapanthus, lavender, clivia, geraniums, plumbago and tecomaria ensure that the flower show is carried on throughout the year.
Johnson said she previously had an aversion to orange and purple flower colours but has realised these vibrant hues bring beneficial insects and birds to the garden. Especially the sunbirds — Malachites, double collared and black sunbirds.
In spring, when the roses take centre stage, her garden becomes a perfumed theatre.
“I can only grow Old Roses, Heritage Roses, Heirloom Roses. They are all grown on their own roots from cuttings and grafted onto a root stock like modern roses.”
She said roses grown on their own roots were much stronger and could tolerate harsh conditions. Here, in this environment, Johnson cannot even grow Iceberg roses.
Modern-day roses can die just six months after planting.
There are a number of tasks in the garden she is required to do each season/month/week/day.
At present, Johnson is turning the compost heap and applying it to the beds.
“Spring is coming and I know the roses will relish the boost.
“I don’t disturb the beds, just add organic matter in little bits as it becomes available from the heap.
“I am a very lazy gardener.”
Johnson knows that a garden can easily become “an axe for your own neck”.
“Be careful of this,” she advised.
“The garden of Edendale is laid back for most of the year. I do not spray, fertilise or prune my roses.”
Rather, she companion-plants using herbs and trap plants such as nasturtiums to keep the baddies at bay.
She is also a bee keeper, so she is more aware of what is flowering as a food source than how neat and tidy the garden is.
“Weeds are also flowers and the bees feed on them too.”
The house is filled with flowers Johnson picks daily, arranging them in vessels and vases all over their home.
Rosy Regards (@rosyregards on Instagram) is a business she developed to further share the beauty of the gorgeous antique blooms she photographs for printing on greetings cards, tags and prints with those who do not have the privilege to grow and smell them, extending their fragrance in the handmade oil soaps.
“I know my rose photography is inspired as I have no formal training in photography.”
The product range now includes table cloths, napkins, tea towels, aprons and bowl covers.
The idea for this outlet stems from her parents who instilled in Johnson a passion for creativity and entrepreneurship.
“Nine years ago, my dad — a talented artist — who paints under the signature RD McKenzie, nudged me out of my comfort zone, inviting me to join him at the 2016 National Arts Festival.
“With a deadline looming and a collection of images ready, I printed my first range of cards.
“My mother, Fay McKenzie, a skilled gardener, cook, caterer and florist, taught me the value of self-sufficiency and generating my own income.”
For the last 20 years, Johnson and her business partner, interior decorator Lea Davies, have “choreographed” a few destination weddings a year centred on the love of flowers and foraging for unusual bits and pieces from their respective environments.
Their partnership is an ideal mix with their backgrounds in gardening, décor and styling.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.