Do you know where your rose bushes come from?
They may be beautiful and hardy — as the recent bushfires have shown — but roses also need a huge amount of care to get them ready for the commercial market.
Summer has come to a close and the cooler weather signals an end to rose budding season — one of the most important parts of the year in commercial rose farms.
It is the time when new rose bushes are propagated.
Wagner's Rose Nursery is nestled near potato farms at Kalangadoo, in South Australia's south-east region.
This summer, owner Brian Wagner estimates 200,000 new rose bushes have been created on his farm.
Professional rose budders are needed for the job and Mr Wagner looks all over the world for the right ones.
"It's really important that we've got professional, skilled rose budders because we work on percentages," he said.
"Our budders generally work on a 95–97 per cent bud take … you don't want a 40 or 50 per cent take, because then I wouldn't have a business.
"When you get good budders, whose bud take and strike rate are really high, then you try to hang on to them.
"It’s really important that you can trust the budders working for you."
Hard work
Out in the rose fields, two men duck down among the rose bushes, reappearing only to duck down again moments later.
They are Lewis Duncan Gordon and Harry Devenport-Cadden — two professional rose budders who bud anywhere between 2,500 to 4,000 plants a day.
The work is physically tiring; they are constantly bending down to place buds in root stocks.
Mr Devenport-Cadden says it is common for the muscles in rose budders' legs to become sore.
"You see [budders] waddling away … and a few people just can't do it because it's just too physical for them," he said.
"Especially when you add the heat, when it's 35 degrees, it's challenging."
Mr Duncan Gordon laughs at the suggestion that rose budding is simple gardening.
"People think that," he said.
"I'd tell them, 'Come work with us for a day … then you’ll know the difference between gardening and mass agricultural gardening'."
The duo come from Scotland but work on rose farms all around the world.
Mr Duncan Gordon has been working in the industry for six years.
"I learnt rose budding from my friend's dad and I've been doing it ever since," he said.
Mr Devenport-Cadden grew an interest in rose budding after hearing Mr Duncan Gordon talk about it at a party.
"I thought, OK, tell me a bit more about this, and Lewis said 'Yeah, I'll take you away next year'.
"Here we are, five years later."
The process
The budding process used at Wagner's is known as a 'T-budding'.
The first budder will slice vertically down the root stock stem, then horizontally to create a 'T' shape.
The bark is pulled back at the intersection of the cuts to expose a second layer and the bud is placed inside.
A second budder then staples a patch over the exposed wood, which will stay in place for a few weeks.
When the first leaves begin to sprout from the inserted bud the root stock is trimmed down, so that all new growth will come from the new variety of rose.
Rose budders use special knives that can cost several hundred dollars each.
They need to stay sharp and withstand the thousands of cuts made every day.
"They normally last two or three years maximum … some people buy a new knife after every season," Mr Duncan Gordon said.
Counting the tens of thousands of plants budded is no easy task, so the men carry around a notebook that details every single rose bush.
"Harry will go back and count every single plant, and then he writes down the variety, name, and number in the book," Mr Duncan Gordon said.
Next to the field of tall rose bushes, there are root stocks that have been cut down to just a few inches from the ground, patches covering the buds still clearly visible.
The newly propagated buds will grow into bushes over the next few months, and then be ready for sale as either yearlings or two-year-old plants.
