This is a rugosa rose, raised in the US in 1926. The flowers are a delicate pink with a delightful fragrance, like a cross between rose and cloves. It has upright growth with good foliage. Unfortunately, it rarely produces hips. Still it would be a lovely addition to any garden. Here it is about 1.5m x 1m.

Looking up some more information on this rose, I came across this snippet online: 'Now what did Miss Jekyll say about rugosa roses? Ah yes - The danger in rugosa hybrids is the tendency towards a strong magenta colouring.' That may be the case with some, but certainly not with our Sally.

With Riversdale exhibiting the National Trust (NSW)'s exhibition Georgian Glass: Colonial Style throughout the Heritage Festival, the community, volunteers and the team at Riversdale were treated to a specialist talk on glass and glassblowing by Peter Minson.

Minson talked through a brief history of glass from the Roman times, the decline of glass, the rediscovery of glass and the introduction of lead to the process. This introduction added more sparkle to the glass and changed its properties making it more malleable.

Minson is a third-generation glass blower. His grandfather came to Australia first making radio valves then progressing to neon signs. The family went into making medicinal and pharmaceutical glass as a result of the depression. One of Minson's first tasks was making 1000 test tubes, all of which were blown by hand. I was amazed at the length of time for the apprenticeship, seven years and that it took about 15 to 16 years to become fully qualified.

In 1979 he went to Sweden after being offered a place at the Orrefors Glass School in Sweden. This advanced his glass blowing skills in addition to learning other techniques. The audience followed Minson's career from building the first furnace for small scale glass blowing to the establishment of his studio in Binalong.

He showed the audience slides of many examples of his work, including early pieces, commission and exhibition work. It was obvious that Minson enjoys the challenge of making unusual things and expanding his techniques and knowledge of the technical side of glass. As a footnote, I bought one of his glass teapots from the shop. It will make an interesting and unique gift.

Now back to earth, we take a walk to the vegetable garden. This week our wonderful gardeners were planting out red cabbage seedlings, bunching broccoli and cauliflowers with parsnip seeds also going in. It is planned to plant garlic in the coming weeks.

At home you may also want to plant Brussels sprout seedlings and lettuce, radish and onion seeds. We continue picking lettuces, chard and both types of parsley.

Our venerable Medlar tree has been given some foliar fertiliser to help it recover from the hot summer. The bed size has also been increased to the tree canopy with a dressing of a gentle plant tonic lightly forked in.

On a less positive note, Khaki weed has been found in the parkland. This is a very invasive weed and is a particularly nasty, like a huge bindii which can puncture car tyres. We think it was introduced on the car tyres from visitors. This has now been sprayed for the second time, because, as a new weed to the area, the first spraying was not successful.

Be part of the ongoing preservation and development of Riversdale by becoming a volunteer today at Riversdale Homestead, 2 Twynam Drive, North Goulburn. Open: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am to 2pm.

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