I have just been to Kojonup. Where? Kojonup. Western Australia. No, I had never heard of it before either. It is a small (very small) farming town south of Perth and you might just drive through it without realising that it is home of the most wonderful gardens that it has ever been my pleasure to see.

Let me tell you that the gardens around Kojonup were so spectacular that they had me chomping at the bit to get home and change everything that I had ever done in my own small patch.

One of the great pleasures of my visit was that everywhere I went I was told that my timing was perfect. You know how often you visit a garden and people will tell you (no matter how good it is) that you should have been there a week before or that in another week s time it will be at its best? Here everyone wanted me to know that the Lord in his goodness had given them the fullness of beauty just when they needed it most.

My visit was part of the pre-conference trip with the Australian Heritage Rose national convention. I am well known for saying that I no longer go on my travels to see places, only to see people. Here I was so lucky that I managed to get both of the ingredients right. For my own part I am not sure that I can do justice to the gardens that I saw. They were bursting with beauty and the enthusiasm of their owners. They were all sited in farms where the women were the movers in making the gardens - although in fairness it should be said that the men all came in for a great deal of praise from their spouses.

What they all had in common was plenty of land. Most of them had begun with a small paddock - and then expanded, pushing the boundaries of their gardens into previously held farming land. One couple told me that neither their home nor their garden were meant to be for keeps. They were only a starting place for something more permanent... but here they were 25 years later and still enjoying their temporary involvement.

Those of us who complain about conditions for growing roses should speak with some of the gardeners of Kojonup. Not only is there a severe shortage of water but as their dams get lower so the water becomes salty, there are the searing hot winds from the east, plagues of locusts and the beautiful but dreaded green parrots can chomp through a rose garden without thoughts for the owners or the beauty of the rose. To be successful here, one garden owner told me, you have to be part gardener, part Annie Oakley.

Being members of a tremendously gifted and enthusiastic Heritage Rose group doesn't mean that only roses with a historic background are grown. While 'Bloomfield Abundance', 'Penelope', 'Duchess of Brabant', 'Mutabilis', 'Mme Alfred Carriere', and the magnificent 'Crepuscule' (a mind diverting sight in most gardens) bloomed with glory there were places for many modern roses. 'Peace', of course, was there - and growing with the vitality and beauty of bloom that I seem to remember from back in the fifties. And what is wrong with orange roses in the right place - there were floribunda and patios to charm everyone (even those who say they dislike the modern colours.)

Often American bred hybrid teas were noticeable - roses like 'Forty-Nine'r' and 'Talisman' for instance. And then the French bred 'Papa Meilland' and Scottish 'Alec's Red'. And why have so many people forsaken the older German-bred 'Crimson Glory'? Here it was growing as a bush but more spectacularly as a climber. Oh, and 'Iceberg' was everywhere...it must surely be the most planted of all roses these days.

Of course the Austin roses are there in force. They add the old fashioned look to gardens when the blooming time is over for many of the historic varieties.

It was the freedom of planting that delighted me. As one who does not believe in under planting with summer plants to any great extent here the effortless independence and licence would easily have changed anyone's mind. Native plants and many better known annuals and perennials all added colour and substance to the rose gardens - but then I told myself they have no problem about finding land for their plantings. And with very liberal amounts of sheep and cow manure added there was plenty of mulch to comfort the roots when the weather got hot.

Of course many beds are raised to provide growth over the heavy clay. Simple to build a raised bed? If the inclination hits you then you could follow the example from the recipe of Cathy Wright: "Where possible we have built them up by using straw as a base, laced with blood and bone and 10% sulphate of potash, topped with lots of sheep manure and silt scooped from the dams (not to clayey), then heavily mulched with pea hay - and Voila! - instant garden." Wouldn't it be lovely if it was as easy as it sounds!

But then where there is beauty like this effort never enters the mind - and gardens like those in Yarabin, Jam Valley, Karana, Cherry tree, Pine Avenue and many others are names that will stay in my memory for a long time.