PAKENHAM residents can look forward to thousands of roses being in bloom, thanks to local not-for-profit Outlook.
Pakenham-based Outlook, which provides support services for people with disability in the Casey Cardinia region, has begun running monthly rose sale events at the Outlook Wholesale Nursery since December last year.
Grahame Barker, manager of the Outlook Wholesale Nursery, says that autumn is a wonderful time to plant roses, as roses are still in bloom and have time to establish themselves prior to winter.
Grahame has spent years growing and farming roses. After making a decision to move away from the corporate world, he set up his own successful rose farm. From there he was invited to assist in the
establishment of rose farms interstate and even as far afield as Greece.
The Outlook Wholesale Nursery produces stock that is sold at Outlook Market Recycle Shops in Mornington, Hampton Park and Darebin.
The Nursery also provides employment and training opportunities for people with disability and profits
from the Nursery are put back into funding Outlook’s mission.
Grahame says his number one tip for rose growers is to undertake pruning. “A lot of people won’t prune
their roses. They don’t understand that they doing them a favour, the more you prune them, the more
they grow,” he says.
“It’s likely we will run wholesale nursery sales on a monthly basis” says Grahame.
The next sale is Saturday 2 – 3 April at the Outlook Wholesale Nursery, 24 Toomuc Valley Road
Pakenham.
