Newstead Roses

Roses, and only roses, have been the business of Henk and Karen Nieuwesteeg since 1997, on a property along Monbulk Road in the Dandenong Ranges. Henk comes from horticultural stock several generations deep, and that narrow, deliberate focus shows in the range on offer: David Austin English roses alongside Delbard's French varieties, ground covers, miniatures, floribundas, hybrid teas, old-fashioned forms, climbers, pillar roses, and standards trained to various heights, including weeping forms on tall stems. There are curated groupings too, for the fragrance-obsessed, for pot gardens, for those wanting Australian-bred varieties or something to mark an occasion. This is not a business chasing volume or convenience; there's no mail order, no online cart, just a couple who know their stock intimately and are glad to talk you through it in person. Bare-rooted plants arrive and sell through the cooler months, with the nursery restocking each winter ahead of the new season. The name itself is a quiet piece of history, a simplification of the family surname, adopted to avoid confusion with a related wholesale operation in Coldstream. It's a specialist's plot rather than a general garden centre, and the kind of place where the depth of knowledge on hand is worth the drive out to Monbulk.