Rose Valley at Cameron Highlands

This Chinese New Year I had the opportunity to bring my family to Cameron Highlands. While my family had their time enjoying the cool weather, hot steamboat and chocolate-dipped strawberries, I took the trip to another level by visiting various rose places such as Rose Valley, Rose Centre, YG Nursery and MARDI Agrotechnology Park. I learnt a massive deal
about roses there and brought home lots of pictures. Best of all, I befriended with a local rose grower and had an opportunity to chat with a rose expert.

For this post, I will try to cover the Rose Valley, a place that I would recommend any rose lovers to visit.

Situated at Tringkap, Cameron Highland, Rose Valley boasts an amazing 450 varieties of roses in all shapes and sizes. It showcases from the "black" rose to "thornless" rose to "green" rose and makes available over 20 fragrant varieties to cup and sniff.

The rose classes found planted here are Hybrid Teas, Grandifloras, Ramblers, Floribundas, Miniatures and a Wild/Species rose.

It is a landscaped rose garden, done modestly with roses are planted intermittently with other companion  flowers that could be found in Cameron Highlands such as Lily, Gerbera, Diamond, Lady Shoe, Honeysuckle, Camellia and Gipsy Flower. So, it is a wonderful garden to be in and take beautiful pictures. For me, it was the place to see and learn how roses are incorporated in the gardens and planted with the underplants.

Good things about this garden are that it's moderately sized, it has benches to ease tired feet, souvenir shops and of course rows and rows of beautiful roses to cup and smell, planted in groups and singly, as borders and hedges. The endless blooms and nice fragrant in the cool climate was really therapeutic especially to city folks and rose lovers like me.

While many would be blinded by the numerous blooms at waist high, my eyes were taken up higher to explore the roses that formed tall bushes and cascading effects, and with every bit of knowledge I have on roses I tried to discern the classes, habits and bloom sizes and shapes. My son pointed to me a rose tree he called 'the giant rose'. I was oblivious with so many roses that I almost missed this giant tree altogether if it weren't for my son.

The "Giant Rose Tree" which soars up to probably more than 10 ft high.

One of it's arching branches.

It's trunk - huge!

What it did to my fingers... 

Another tree that caught my attention is a rambler rose, the branches were uniquely intertwined and aged beautifully. A rose which I found out earlier that very morning to be a common rose to the locals, popularly grown by the locals nearly everywhere; in their gardens and public sidewalks. A rose which later I received as cuttings from a friendly local I met!

I wish I knew how old this tree is...

These are trusses produced by that beautiful tree.. amazing!

The blooms are generous and beautiful too!

I am grateful to the owner of this place as the garden and roses are maintained well for people like me to enjoy. The toilet is clean too.

However, there are few things that I wish that they would improve. The show materials in the exhibition hut (Museum House) I think were a bit outdated, dusty and lack of information. While the roses were pretty and maintained well, some of them were entirely covered with powdery mildew making sniffing or touching the blooms not entirely possible. (The air was extra damp in Cameron Highlands as it is still raining daily, promoting rapid growth of powdery mildew).

I was too a bit upset for not knowing the name of each varieties as there were no labels to refer to at the bushes feet and the were no garden guides on service. I think I would appreciate the blooms better if I knew what they were and be able to look up on their history and garden performance later on.

Overall, it was a nice visit, a very pleasant one! There are many roses that I have never seen before and there are many too that I wish are growing in my tiny garden.

Let's feast our eyes on these roses, shall we? (and forgive me on the photo quality);

The side view.

The front view; sprouting like mushrooms looking for sunlight.

The group of yellow and pink roses.

This is the one that I wish I could buy.
I believe it's neither the famous "Rosa Mundi" nor "Ferdinand Pichard"
but it's striped alright.
This has deeper pink tone and reflexed petals even before full maturity.

This is another striped rose grown there.
A color-and-striping resemblance to "Harry Wheatcroft" rose.

Color so sweet and blooms so wonderful to have in any gardens.

Beautifully toned. But it was in fact a solid color rose.

Another bloom of the same rose above.

Beautifully planted ivy cascading on the hill slope.
Foreground, a beautiful floribunda also popularly grown by the locals.

The here famous as "Black rose".
It has the deep burgundy coloring but is however not as velvety as I thought it would be.

What I also have at home - Rough's Jewel.

Beautiful transformation.
A delightful shade of orange rose with bronzy tone at petal edges,
quick to transform into creamy yellow with pinky tints.

A delight as cut flowers indoors.

The white floribunda I wish I grow.

And lastly, a rose in its own class.
Extraordinary rose with high centered form, tan-colored bronzy orange petals and great substance.
It has this wonderfully deep yellowish center adding to great contrast.
Magnifique!

A bit of info to those interested to visit:

Entrance Tickets:
RM 5 for adults
RM 2 for kids
Opening Hours:
8.00a.m. - 6.00p.m

Address:

148 Tringkap, Cameron Highlands, 39000 Pahang, Malaysia
Contacts:
Phone : 605-4961620 /4961491
Fax    : 605-4961049


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