We’re often reminded to ‘stop and smell the roses’ and it’s something Sheryl Shaylor makes sure she does every single day.
Sheryl is undoubtedly a bit of an expert on roses as she’s had more than forty years experience nurturing and admiring Heritage roses. She’s even received a prestigious national award from Heritage Roses of Australia (the Deane Ross Memorial Award) for her outstanding contribution to the promotion of these beautiful old world varieties.
“I first became interested in old roses back in the early 1980s,” Sheryl says. “We lived on a farm in Katanning (WA) and the darn parrots kept savaging many of my rose bushes. I found that the birds didn’t care much for the Heritage roses because unlike the modern day varieties these old roses are more shrub-like and more loosely structured which the parrots don’t like.”
Sheryl is also an experienced landscaper having worked as a garden designer on and off for many years as well as hosting tour groups to gardens in Europe and New Zealand. All of this experience certainly came in handy when she and husband John purchased a large property at Emu Point on WA’s south coast. Not only did the house need serious renovation but the surrounding grounds were a bit of a jungle, to say the least.
“Other people would have looked at the property and been put off by the swaths of untamed vegetation and random garden beds but I didn’t take any notice of that. What I saw was the garden’s lake and the endless possibilities. We brought in the bulldozer and cleared a lot of what was there, then brought in loads of soil plus 20 tonnes of manure to create garden beds and the undulating lawns. Then came the strategic placement of more than 40 trees and the creation of the different features within the garden.”
And those features are many and varied. There’s a dry stone creek bed, a summer house, a fairy dell, fig forest and vegie garden to name just a few and all are connected by meandering paths that lead you past garden nooks and pretty vistas. Dotted throughout are reclaimed objects and materials that John has cleverly and artistically repurposed to delineate areas and create focal points. And, at the centre of it all, is the expansive lake complete with working windmill, row boat and jetty.
Of course roses also feature and Sheryl has planted 280 of them.
Thankfully for Sheryl and John’s local community they don’t keep their creation just for themselves as they regularly open the garden to visitors to raise money for charity.
“We consider ourselves fortunate in many ways so it’s important to give back to the community. We’ve raised lots of money for local charities and giving back is something we’ve always done.”
The couple also hire out the garden for special occasions such as weddings, parties and even the occasional wake. While income is not the driving reason for this, Sheryl admits that it does help pay for some of the garden’s upkeep.
“We host six or seven weddings a year. We don’t advertise and most of the bookings come from word of mouth. We even bought the large vacant block next door to accommodate parking for the events we host.”
Sheryl says she and John get great enjoyment from seeing others using and appreciating the garden.
“I love sharing our garden and being in the garden and amongst my roses is definitely my happy place. I can’t help but stop and smell the roses.”
