The past three months I have spent looking for a place for us to call home. I named this project Rooftop Roses, as I had always envisioned the flower farm atop a building. The name, aside from being a reference to the broader vision – a bold urban horticultural initiative – also, on another level, signifies the limitless potential of this project and the romance and whimsy of looking out at the world from a rooftop.
With every small win we achieve, the girls and I at The Beautiful Bunch will exclaim, “this is really happening, we are going to grow roses in the sky!”. It sounds fanciful, but this is exactly the kind of feeling we want both the name and the actual physical space to evoke – limitless potential, big dreams and beautiful things.
As to the vision of the actual space, I imagine you will open a nondescript red door at ground level, somewhere in the city. This will give you access to a lift or maybe stairs. Once you are at the top of the building, the entry point to Rooftop Roses will be signified by a small archway. This archway is covered by rambling rose shrubs, a profusion of small, clustered flowers in a pastel palette – pink, lemon-coloured, some cream. The entry arch will mirror the curved shape of the greenhouse, which you can see just ahead.
Connecting the curves of the entry point and those of the greenhouse further along, is a path lined with flowering hedges. This dense green backdrop either side of the path is punctuated by yellow and apricot-coloured roses, with a scent of myrrh and black tea. Woven in-between are more roses, these are crimson and coral pink, producing a more traditional fragrance - warm, heady, sweet. As you walk down the path, the arches of the greenhouse tunnels come clearly into view, appearing as contrasting curves against the rectangular monoliths of the city skyscrapers.
In addition to the greenhouse, the roses, and the romantic arches, we will need potting sheds, a cool room, a place for the girls to process each harvest and tables and chairs where we have our lunch. Also, there will be bees somewhere, because the world needs more bees.
As to the main event, the flowers inside the greenhouse, my mind is overflowing with ideas, and here’s where things become hazy - my floral dreams hindered by a severe lack of knowledge. I have a scrapbook of cut-outs and accompanying scribbles as to what roses I would like us to produce commercially, but as these are to be grown using hydroponics, no further dreaming can take place until our Head of Horticulture, an actual scientist (thankfully!) can test the viability of each species.
At the heart of all of this is the space itself, which as of writing, remains as elusive as the buildings and roses within.
The beauty behind Rooftop Roses extends beyond the blooms themselves. This initiative will deliver real social value, and as such, we are hoping to find a partner as opposed to a landlord in the conventional sense - someone who genuinely shares our vision of what this project will achieve, which is, greater numbers of women entering the Australian workforce for the first time.
Thus far, I have met with 27 different people over the space of six weeks to talk specifically about space for Rooftop Roses. Whilst the conversations focus less on the dream detailed above and are more along the lines of square metres required and council permits, I’ve tried to ensure that I am speaking to people who really understand the big vision. We’ve had some that do and numerous who don’t.
Ultimately, we are on the search for a building that can bring our dreams to life. That will enable us to share our big vision with the world, and that will give young women who have often had to leave all they have known and those they love, a sense of belonging and home.
This is one of the really hard parts of the journey, and I would love you to continue to follow as we embrace and share with you the highs and lows of this next stage.
J x
